Florida Keys paramedic and nurse arrested for narcotics theft
MIAMI – Deputies made the announcement on Friday that a nurse and a paramedic would be charged in connection with the theft of controlled substances from the Monroe County Fire Rescue Trauma Star chopper program, which was still under investigation by detectives.
In a statement, Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay referred to the incident involving the stolen morphine and Versed, which is a benzodiazepine, as “troubling.”
The Chief Flight Nurse, Lynda Rusinowski, who is 56 years old, was suspected of stealing, and the Firefighter Paramedic, Damian Roberto Suarez, who is 44 years old, was accused of lying about the incident and deleting images and text messages from his phone that may have been used as evidence.
Suarez is being investigated for official misconduct as well as tampering with evidence, both of which are offenses. Rusinowski is being charged with two counts of grand theft of a controlled drug, two counts of acquiring a controlled substance by deception, and two counts of official misconduct. All four of these charges carry a maximum sentence of ten years in prison.
