Sarah May Casareto is in drug treatment
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| Sarah May Casareto's lawyer says she's manned up and gone to treatment. |
Since her arrest last week, Casareto has denied stealing the drug Fentanyl from Abbott Northwestern Hospital and sending an improperly medicated man into excruciating kidney surgery.
Her lawyer tried unsuccessfully to keep her whereabouts under seal. So where was the good nurse? The answer ain't gonna help her defense none.
Before a kidney stone removal procedure, Casareto allegedly stole patient Larry V. King's dosage of the painkiller Fentanyl and told him to "man up here and take some of the pain." Her colleagues accused her of stumbling around and shirking her duties during the procedure while King writhed and moaned in pain. Following the surgery, empty needles were found in her pockets. She refused a drug test and no longer works for Abbott.
Casareto denounced her former coworkers in a statement, saying any strange behavior in the operating room could be explained by an unnamed illness and the fact that she was recently back from a medical leave. She blamed Abbott for forcing her to return too soon. Her lawyer called her a "scapegoat" for the grand-slam medical malpractice lawsuit everyone is assuming King will file.
This morning was supposed to be her first court appearance, but Hennepin County Attorney spokesman Santo Cruz says she was MIA.
"She was a no-show," he says. "Her excuse was that she was in treatment."
The County Attorney's Office requested that a warrant go out immediately for Casareto's arrest, but the judge decided to give her another continuance. Cruz says that defendants who are in drug treatment make their court appearances all the time.
"Someone from the drug treatment facility comes with," he says.
So far, his office has not confirmed that Casareto is where she says she is. Her next appearance will take place March 22. If she pulls another Lindsay Lohan, a warrant will go out for her arrest.
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