An Astoria man was arraigned Wednesday in Queens Criminal Court, a day after he was arrested for stealing more than 1,500 oxycodone pills from two Queens nursing homes where he worked as a director. Via Getty Images
Aug. 15, 2024 By Bill Parry
A former director at two Queens nursing homes is criminally charged with stealing more than 1,500 oxycodone pills, which were meant to be destroyed.
Charles Gonder, 52, of 30th Drive in Astoria, was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on Wednesday on a criminal complaint charging him with criminal possession of a controlled substance, 26 counts of falsifying business records, and other related crimes following an investigation into his past employment at the Regal Heights Rehabilitation & Nursing Center in Jackson Heights and the Sapphire Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing of Central Queens in Flushing.
If convicted, Gonder faces up to 20 years in prison.
According to the charges and investigation, Gonder applied for a management job at the Jackson Heights facility in May 2023. He left blank the answer to a question on the job application that asked if he had ever been convicted of a crime. He had two prior criminal convictions in Nassau County, including one felony.
Gonder was hired by that nursing home on May 4, 2023. He was the acting director of nursing services and was responsible for the collection and storage of all unused medication, including narcotics, at the facility.
The nursing home’s procedures required information on unused medication to be logged into an internal database, and then the drugs were to be placed in a locked receptacle. Gonder was terminated from the position eight days later, on May 12, 2023.
After Gonder left the facility, an audit conducted by the state Department of Health on June 26,
2023, revealed that 141 oxycodone pills linked to four prescriptions were missing from a receptacle bin.
Records indicated that they were placed in the bin on May 10, 2023, and that Gonder accepted the pills for disposal. Gonder accepted 30 pills from one of those prescriptions and was also handed another 15 leftover pills from the same prescription. Packaging for those pills was later found in a desk used by Gonder, and all but one were missing.
Gonder contended he put the loose pills in the disposal bin, but they were not found there.
On May 18, 2023, Gonder applied for a management position at the Flushing facility. He did not answer an application question about whether he had ever been convicted of a crime. He was hired on May 22, 2023, as assistant director of nursing services and later became director of nursing services. He was responsible for the collection, documentation, and disposal of unused prescription medication.
Gonder and the nursing home administrator were the only employees who could access locked drug receptacle bins, which were in Gonder’s office.
A March 2024 audit of the nursing home’s narcotics log, which tracks the recipient and disposal of unused narcotics, found that 1,534 oxycodone pills associated with 66 prescriptions that were to be placed in the receptacle bins were missing from those bins.
A logbook indicated that Goner had acknowledged receipt of pills from 26 of the 66 prescriptions. Gonder was terminated from The Sapphire Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing of Central Queens last month, and he was arrested on Tuesday, Aug. 13.
“As an official at two Queens nursing homes, this defendant was entrusted with the safety of patients under his care, including the safe disposal of narcotics,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said.
“We allege he violated that trust after a long-term investigation by my office found more than 1,500 oxycodone pills were missing from the two facilities. He was arrested and will now face justice in court.”
Gonder was also charged with two counts of fraud and deceit related to controlled substances and two counts of petit larceny. Queens Criminal Court Judge Edward Daniels ordered Gonder to return to court on Oct. 15.
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