AUGUSTA — A Wales nurse pleaded guilty Thursday at the Capital Judicial Center to intentionally endangering the welfare of a patient at a skilled nursing facility in Waterville and to falsifying private records.

However, Mary A. Reynolds, 46, can withdraw her plea to the more serious charge in a year if she complies with the terms of a deferred disposition agreement.

The complaint says the offenses were committed Aug. 4, 2014, at Lakewood Continuing Care Center in Waterville. The patient was identified only by the initials H.C.

“Essentially, the CNA on the shift before her was administering the medications for (Reynolds’) shift, so the risk there is that they were doubling up in the first shift, or that they were being deprived in the second shift,” said the prosecutor, Assistant Attorney General William Savage. “The patients weren’t getting the medication when they were supposed to get it.”

According to the agreement, if Reynolds meets conditions of the agreement, which includes performing 40 hours of community service, she will be fined $400 on the misdemeanor conviction of falsifying private records. If she fails to meet the conditions, she will be sentenced on the felony charge of intentionally endangering the welfare of a dependent person. That charge carries a penalty of up to five years in prison.

Reynolds is no longer working as a licensed practical nurse, according to her attorney, Walter McKee.

Conditions of Reynolds’ deferment also include complying with any consent agreement she makes with the Maine State Board of Nursing.

McKee said there is no hearing set in the case before the nursing board, but a consent agreement is expected to be finalized in the next few weeks.

“Mary recognizes that mistakes were made here,” McKee said via email. “She should have immediately reported the other employee as having given medications when the other employee was not supposed to do so. She didn’t and accepts responsibility for that.”

Savage said more than one patient was involved. “We charged one count to get the case started, and she accepted responsibility before a grand jury, so we kept it to one count,” he said. The case was investigated by the Health Care Crimes Unit of the Maine Attorney General’s Office.

Another person also is charged in the same case, Savage said, but that case remains unresolved.

According to the Maine State Board of Nursing, Reynolds had been a licensed practical nurse since November 1991. Her most recent license expired on Nov. 11, 2015, and the status is listed as “failed to renew.”

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