Woman Accused Of Working At Pennsylvania Nursing Homes Under False Identities

In the nursing profession, your services will always be in demand, but it is one of the lines of work that has a high rate of burnout. Nurses and certified nursing assistants often cope with long commutes and no-win working conditions where, thanks to understaffing, nothing they do can be good enough for their work supervisors or for regulators, to say nothing of the residents and their families, who are suffering their own burnout due to ill health and the same poor conditions that cause stress for the employees. Therefore, it should surprise no one that many nursing homes have a high rate of employee turnover. Employees that quit or get fired after just a few shifts are nothing out of the ordinary, especially when temp agencies provide some or all of the staffing for the nursing home. Being honest about the fact that you are in a bad situation is legal, but lying in order to get employed is not. If you are facing criminal charges for making false statements or presenting false documents in order to get employment, contact a Pittsburgh white collar crime lawyer.

Fake IDs Are Not Just a Clever Way for Young People to Buy Alcohol

If you present a fake driver’s license or other forgery of a government-issued identity document, you can face charges for fraud or forgery. If the name that appears on the document belongs to a real person, living or dead, you could also face charges for identity theft. These are serious charges by themselves, but the consequences are even worse if you use these false documents for your own financial gain, including by presenting them during an employment screening or job interview. The worst-case scenario is using forged documents so that you can obtain prescription drugs, such as by faking a doctor’s signature on a prescription pad or presenting false documents that claim that you are a licensed pharmacist.

In the News

Shannon Womack, 39, is facing criminal charges for using false documents to secure employment at six nursing homes in the Pittsburgh area; the documents falsely claimed, variously, that she was a licensed practicing nurse and a registered nurse. She worked at each facility for anywhere between one and ten shifts. The reasons that the employers fired her ranged from generally poor performance, most likely explicable by the fact that she never graduated from nursing school, to suspicions that she was trying to obtain oxycodone and other controlled substances. In July 2025, police arrested Womack during a traffic stop in Washington County. They discovered that she had 20 aliases and seven Social Security numbers, some of which had active warrants.

Contact Gary E. Gerson About Criminal Defense Cases

A criminal defense lawyer can help you if you are facing criminal charges for possession of false identification documents or for lying to prospective employers during the job application process.  Contact the law offices of Gary E. Gerson in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania about your case.

Source:

cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/imposter-nurse-charges-pennsylvania-health-care/