Nursing board drops charges against murderer

The Board of Examiners for Nursing disciplined five nurses Wednesday, but dropped its charges against an Ansonia nurse because he is now serving 60 years in prison for an unrelated felony murder.

The nursing board’s charges were dropped against Jermaine V. Richards, a former licensed practical nurse from Ansonia, because he was convicted in March of the felony murder of his ex-girlfriend, an Eastern Connecticut State University student, in 2013.

Since Richards’ nursing license lapsed in 2016 and he is now serving a long sentence for murdering Alyssiah Wiley, 20, of West Haven, the prosecution of administrative charges against him is unnecessary, an attorney for the state Department of Public Health told the board.

In charges unrelated to the murder, Richards had been accused of being involved in a fight with a visitor in the home of one of his patients. In June 2017, the board revoked his nursing license because of the fight and after concluding that he slept while on duty at a patient’s home. A month later, the board vacated the revocation because Richards had asked for a continuance.

In addition to dropping its charges against Richards, the board suspended the license of Linda S. Greenhill, a registered nurse from Ansonia, who has been accused of abusing morphine, Demerol and Dilaudid to excess from April 2017 to March 2018 while working as a registered nurse at Griffin Hospital in Derby, the statement of charges against her said. She has also been accused of stealing those drugs from the hospital and falsifying controlled substance records, the statement said.

The board rejected a reprimand on the RN license of Gregory Coyle of Ansonia, who in 2017, while working for All About You Home Care Services, failed to appear for scheduled home care visits for a patient and failed to administer medication to the patient, a consent order he signed said. He also falsified medication records, the order said. Coyle has completed courses in documentation standards, ethics and patient rights. In signing the order, Coyle chose not to contest the charges while admitting no wrongdoing.

Board members said they would like to see Coyle receive at least a two-year probation with other restrictions, so the case is likely to come back before the board at a future meeting.