KNOXVILLE, Iowa — A Knoxville woman has been accused of stealing several patients’ medications for her own personal use while she was a nurse earlier this year.

According to a criminal complaint, while Angela Lee Freeman was working as a licensed nurse practitioner at a nursing home in Knoxville she made changes to several of the residents’ pain medications in a scheme to obtain the drugs for herself. As a result, the residents experienced over and/or under medication, or went without their medication all together, the complaint states.

Freeman would fraudulently record that the medication was disposed of, but would instead take the medication for her own personal use, court documents state. In total she diverted at least 403 tablets of Hydrocodone, 17.25 ml’s of liquid Morphine, 59 tablets of Morphine, and 59 tablets of Oxycodone, according to court documents.

As a part of her alleged scheme, Freeman used the identities of other nurses and forged their signatures on medical records to steal the drugs, a criminal complaint states.

According to the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, Freeman voluntarily surrendered her nursing license on April 6.

Freeman was booked into the Marion County Jail on Thursday and charged with dependent adult abuse by neglect, dependent adult abuse by exploitation, unlawfully obtaining or attempting to obtain a prescription drug, and identity theft. She has been released on a $10,000 cash/surety bond. A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for Oct. 5.