A former Asante nurse charged with 44 counts of second-degree assault after she allegedly harmed patients by swapping prescription pain medication with non-sterile tap water has posted bail a little over one week after her arrest by Medford police.
Jackson County Sheriff's Office spokesman Aaron Lewis confirmed on Friday morning that Dani Marie Schofield had been released from the Jackson County Jail at about 10:40 a.m. after a $400,000 wire transfer -- 10% of her $4 million bail -- was received by the Jackson County Circuit Court.
The Rogue Valley Tribune reports a grand jury indicted the former Medford nurse on accusations of harming 44 patients in the intensive care unit of Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center over a year-long span while she allegedly stole fentanyl prescribed to ease their pain.
Medford police announced that the Jackson County grand jury indicted Schofield on 44 counts of second-degree assault. That's one count for every patient she is alleged to have "intentionally or knowingly" injured through her actions from July 2022 to July 2023, which is when she stopped working at the hospital, according to police.
Police say Schofield is accused of taking patients' fentanyl for her own personal use and replacing it with non-sterile tap water, causing them to develop life-threatening infections.
The indictment does not include any allegations of homicide, but at least eight of those listed on the indictment are dead, according to civil lawyers representing the estates of some of Schofield's former patients. Police did not respond to questions about the total number of Schofield's alleged victims who died.
