A criminal investigation that focused on a former Kailua dental assistant now charged with assaulting a 2-year-old girl by administering prescription drugs started a year and a half after the incident, when the child’s mother complained to state regulators that installed crowns did not fit, the former dental assistant’s lawyer said Monday.
“There was not an accusation that the child almost died or suffered a brain injury,” said Todd Eddins. “The child was fine and the attorney general knows it.”
Eddins made the comment after his client, Nicole M. Dudoit, pleaded not guilty in state court to second-degree assault and two counts of improperly administering a prescription painkiller and a prescription sedative. The alleged crimes occurred Nov. 20, 2013, according to a criminal information charging document the state attorney general filed in state court earlier this month.
Dudoit, 29, is scheduled to stand trial in May. She remains free on $5,000 bail.
Dudoit allegedly administered meperidine (used for pain relief) and chloral hydrate (a sedative) to the toddler, who underwent a procedure that lasted about an hour and remained unconscious for 12 hours, according to the attorney general’s office.
“The excessive duration of the patient’s unconsciousness placed her life at risk and caused a protracted loss of the function of her central nervous system,” the attorney general’s office said last week in a news release.
Eddins said the state is taking a radical view of the law and broad interpretation of the facts to charge Dudoit with assault.
Dudoit is charged with recklessly causing serious or substantial bodily injury. Second-degree assault is a Class C felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Because the girl was younger than 8 years old at the time of the alleged assault, the state has informed Dudoit that it intends to seek at least a mandatory minimum three-year, four-month sentence.
The two other charges against Dudoit accuse her of dispensing a controlled substance without a written prescription. They are Class C felonies punishable by up to five years in prison.
In November 2013 Dudoit was working at Island Dentistry for Children in Kailua. That’s the same business where two weeks after the incident involving the 2-year-old, Finley Boyle, 3, suffered a fatal cardiac arrest after she was given a cocktail of drugs to sedate her.
Boyle’s parents sued and later reached an out-of-court settlement with Island Dentistry and owner Dr. Lilly Geyer. In January 2014 Geyer closed the business.
The state attorney general’s office says in court records that it and the state Narcotics Enforcement Division are investigating Geyer for prescribing and directing her staff to administer prescription drugs after her state license to prescribe drugs had expired. The attorney general’s office says it is also investigating Geyer for Medicaid fraud for submitting claims to the state medical assistance program for services she performed after her license had expired.
As part of the investigation, the state last year seized the dental records of 121 patients Geyer treated in late 2013, including the 2-year-old girl involved in Dudoit’s criminal case. The state issued subpoenas in 2014 to question two Island Dentistry employees and had hoped to interview four others, including Dudoit. A state judge denied the state’s request to force the employees to talk to investigators.
