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TALLAHASSEE, FL – Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced that a Jackson County nurse has been taken into custody for neglecting a disabled victim under her care. Sherreca Watford, a licensed practical nurse, was arrested by the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit with assistance from the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office.

Investigators with the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit began investigating Watford, 28, after receiving information about the alleged abuse from the Florida Department of Children and Families, Adult Protective Services. The investigation revealed that during her eight-hour shift at Bonifay Nursing and Rehab Center, Watford knowingly disregarded a physician’s orders to suction a patient’s trachea. As a result, the victim went into respiratory distress, a life-threatening situation, and had to be transported to a local emergency room where care was provided. Watford also falsified the victim’s medical records to make it appear as though she conducted the trachea suctioning as ordered.

Watford is charged with one count of neglect of a disabled adult, a third-degree felony, and one count of falsifying medical records, a misdemeanor. If convicted, she faces up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. The case will be prosecuted by the State Attorney’s Office for the 14th Judicial Circuit.