The state attorney general’s office will not retry a former traveling nurse accused of diverting drugs while working at Concord Hospital last year.
Kerry Bridges, 47, of Warren, Maine, was acquitted of four felony drug charges in late May, but jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict on seven others after several hours of deliberation.
Assistant New Hampshire Attorney General Brooke Belanger said she dismissed the seven undecided counts still pending against Bridges in Merrimack County Superior Court last week. Belanger said she decided not to move forward with the case after a further review of the evidence and after having the chance to speak with jurors.
Bridges’s attorney, Jim Moir, said jurors were split 11-1 on the seven charges, with most believing Bridges was not guilty.
Bridges was accused of diverting several drugs, including morphine, Dilaudid, fentanyl and Vicodin from Concord Hospital in early 2015.
Bridges said Wednesday she is relieved that prosecutors dismissed the seven remaining charges against her, but noted she is still fighting an uphill battle to clear her name.
“My reputation has been so damaged, it’s irreparably damaged,” she said. “I lost several jobs from the negative press.”
Prosecutors claimed Bridges stole liquid painkillers from the hospital’s supply and covered her tracks by writing bogus medication orders from doctors. Conversely, her attorney said there was no evidence to prove the allegations. He compared the investigation into Bridges’s short tenure at the hospital to a witch hunt.
The New Hampshire Board of Nursing issued an emergency order on May 22 that suspended Bridges’s privilege to practice nursing in the state until a further hearing is held. Bridges said Wednesday she is still waiting for that hearing.
Bridges has previously worked in hospitals in Maine, Massachusetts and California, but said when other states learned about the charges, she lost those jobs.
“Everyone is waiting on New Hampshire. I’m not able to practice as a nurse at this time,” said Bridges, who worked as a nurse for 18 years.
Bridges has no criminal record.
During her several-day trial in Concord in May, jurors viewed hospital records and surveillance footage that prosecutors and hospital administrators said showed suspicious behavior by Bridges. They accused her of removing painkillers from a locked dispensary and then walking straight into the staff break room.
Bridges testified that she used the break room, but not for the reasons alleged. She said she would check her phone, grab a snack or use the employee bathroom.
Moir said during the trial that prosecutors and hospital staff assumed Bridges’s guilt from the beginning, despite uncovering no evidence of a motive, no signs of drug use, and no actual footage or eyewitness accounts of her pocketing any drugs.
Bridges said Wednesday she hopes to move forward with her life, but still feels suspended in time.
“I’m not sure where to go from here.”
(Alyssa Dandrea can be reached at 369-3319, adandrea@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @_ADandrea.)