A Fulton nurse went a little too far when it came to giving a patient a close examination. If you did not hear the story or see it trending on Facebook last week, nurse Kristen Johnson was arrested after she was found guilty of sending two pictures of a patients private’s to coworkers.
Johnson snapped photos of an unconscious patient’s genitals last year.
After striking a deal with the Onondaga County district attorney’s office, she has surrendered her license and will face three years of probation.
Although the crime is a gross invasion of privacy, let us talk about the result of the case first.
The woman will only face three years on probation, even though when convicted, she was charged with two counts of second-degree unlawful surveillance and one count of second-degree disseminating unlawful surveillance, which should get her some time behind bars away from any camera. After three years of probation she is free to get another job in the community, which I’m guessing will be at a photo studio, a Best Buy or as a private investigator, pun intended.
Another interesting fact about the case is that it took them nine months to convict her. Is it really that hard for police to put the pieces of a crime together when it just involves a few pictures? One of the coworkers could have just Snapchatted it to them or sent it as a direct message over Twitter.
The only part of the result that I truly agree with is Johnson giving up her license. The medical field is one that should be filled with those that can do their job and follow the standards and practices set by those who know what they are doing and those who push to try and solve the new problems that arise. There is no room for nudes. A certain level of maturity and professionalism should be expected from anyone in the field.
Hopefully the county can have a more in-depth look at the candidates hired in the field or at least increased education and inspection of those currently hired to prevent issues like this from popping up again in the future. This should not include an inspection of phones for photos, people still have a right to privacy, just showing the people in the field that there will be consequences for this type of actions.
Johnson didn’t get what she deserved. Justice should be carried out for what she did, but justice only managed to scrap the surface. Admitting to the crime is admirable, yet the fact that she did this should not grant immunity for the action. Johnson got off easy and because she cooperated, her case, just like the crime, was over in a flash.
