A Mountain Top woman who was employed as a licensed practical nurse at the Weatherwood Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center, Weatherly, has been charged with mixing medicine into food to be served to a resident and instructed a CNA to serve the food to the guest there.

Lucena F. Jones, 53, is charged with neglect of a care-dependent person by Weatherly Officer Edward E. Kubert.

Under Pennsylvania law, the statute states a caretaker is guilty of neglect of a care-dependent person “if he: intentionally, knowingly or recklessly causes bodily injury or serious bodily injury by failing to provide treatment, care, goods or services necessary to preserve the health, safety or welfare of a care-dependent person for whom he is responsible to provide care.”

In an affidavit of probable cause, Kubert said the incident happened while dinner was being served to the residents of Weatherwood at 5:45 p.m. Feb. 20. The officer said Jones mixed the drugs into the food. She instructed a male CNA, who is not legally allowed to administer medication, to serve the victim. Kubert’s affidavit says when the food was served to the victim, “she was spitting the food out of her mouth.”

The officer said he was told Jones came into the room and told the CNA he was serving the wrong tray of food to the woman. Jones notified her supervisor on duty about the incident at about 6:30 p.m., the report says.

The victim was transported to the Lehigh Valley Hospital, Hazleton, where she was admitted into the intensive care unit for approximately 10 hours, police said.

Police said Jones admitted to her supervisor that she mixed the medication into the food and instructed the CNA to feed the patient the food with the medication in it. The CNA, police said, provided them a statement saying if he knew there was medication in the tray of food, he would have refused to feed the resident.