The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Nurse accused of murder gets another chance to keep license
A licensed practical nurse from Ansonia who is accused of murdering an Eastern Connecticut State University student will get another chance to keep his nursing license.
Last week, the Board of Examiners for Nursing vacated a decision it made in June to revoke the license of Jermaine V. Richards, 34, after Richards, who is being held on in lieu of $500,000 bail at Northern Correctional Institution in Somers, requested a continuance on a hearing he had been unable to attend in June. The board on July 19 granted his request for the continuance.
Richards is facing charges that he was involved in a fight with a visitor in a patient’s home. In June, the board had concluded after the hearing that he slept while on duty at a patient’s home, misrepresented himself as a registered nurse, violated the patient’s privacy by bringing a visitor to the home and then had a physical altercation with the visitor, state records show. Richards, who cared for the patient in 2012 and 2013, has denied the charges. His license is inactive while the allegations are pending.
In an unrelated case, Richards is being held on a murder charge in the death of his ex-girlfriend, Alyssiah Wiley, 20, of West Haven in 2013. After an extensive search, her dismembered body was found in Trumbull in May 2013, less than two miles from Richards’ home, the Connecticut Post has reported.
In March, for the second time in a year, a jury deadlocked on a verdict in the murder case and a mistrial was declared. His lawyer at the time has said he expects prosecutors to try Richards for a third time.