Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, August 27, 1993                   TAG: 9308270186
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ROANOKE NURSE CONVICTED

Crystal C. Downs was convicted of embezzling the drugs to support her addiction to painkillers while she worked at the Raleigh Court Health Care Center.

After both the prosecutor and Down's attorney agreed she was not a threat to the community, Roanoke Circuit Judge Diane Strickland gave her a three-year suspended sentence.

Downs, 29, will be required to undergo drug testing, counseling and treatment during two years of probation.

She testified that she is working at a Roanoke nursing home while her license as a registered nurse remains under investigation.

Last October, officials at the Raleigh Court Health Care Center noticed an increase in drugs checked out for patients during Downs' night shift.

When she was approached on the job, authorities found that Downs was stockpiling dozens of loose pills in her purse, including Valium, Xanax, Entex and Phenergan.

Defense attorney Jeff Rudd said Downs' patients were not denied medication as the result of her actions. She checked out more medication than her patients needed in order to hoard it for her own use, he said.

Rudd said Downs already is taking significant steps to overcome an addiction to pain killers that began several years ago after she had gall bladder surgery and suffered from depression.

Although Downs admitted to the embezzlement charge earlier, Strickland had delayed a decision on her degree of guilt.

Rudd asked that the charge be reduced to a misdemeanor offense of obtaining property by false pretenses. But Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Dennis Nagel argued that anything short of a felony conviction would be "whitewashing the crime."