Nurse accused of stealing drugs from patient

Published 8:08 am Monday, February 5, 2018

Lyna Ann Tschann, 38, of Austin was charged on Friday in Mower County District Court with felony theft of a controlled substance and two counts of felony fifth-degree drug possession. She pleaded not guilty to all charges.

According to the court complaint, police received a call at 2:13 p.m. on Wednesday from a hospice patient living in the 300 block of Second Avenue Northeast. The man told an officer that he believed his nurse, Tschann, was stealing his prescription medication. He believed she started doing it earlier in the month because he noticed pills were missing and he also found pills on the floor. The man set up an iPad and recorded Tschann when she came to the house. He showed the officer video of Tschann allegedly taking pills from a prescription bottle and placing them in her pockets. The man said she took four morphine pills and an unknown number of hydrocodone pills, both controlled substances, in the video.

Lyna Ann Tschann, 38

The man also said she stole hydrocodone and oxycodone during another incident, according to the complaint.

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A detective located Tschann’s vehicle and arrested her. She allegedly admitted to stealing the morphine pills. She gave permission to search her home in the 2000 block of 20th Avenue Northwest, where the detective allegedly found morphine pills, hydrocodone pills, two empty bottles of liquid morphine, syringes and the wrapper of a fentanyl patch. She allegedly admitted she did not have prescriptions for any of the found medication.

Tschann’s pre-trial is scheduled for May 4.