West Newton woman accused of stealing records from Bethel Park hospice

A West Newton woman is accused by police of taking patients’ health records and proprietary information from a Washington County-based senior living care company, according to court papers.

Virginia L. Spano, 56, allegedly took about 700 pages of documents moments after she was fired from her job as a certified nursing assistant at a Bethel Park hospice location owned by Paramount Health Resources, according to Allegheny County detectives.

Spano surrendered Thursday to detectives and is free on $5,000 unsecured bail. She is charged with theft of trade secrets and theft by unlawful taking.

Spano’s employment was terminated in November 2015 for falsifying her time sheet, Paramount officials told investigators. Authorities accuse her of going into a secure room at the Bethel Park location afterwards and taking the documents, including confidential patient files, internal business policies, training information and notes made by other employees, according to court papers.

Spano is suing Paramount in federal court, claiming that she was discriminated against based on age and that her termination was in retaliation for reporting health care violations and abuse.

Her attorney Robert Davant disputed the new criminal allegations that he said stemmed from a complaint made by an attorney associated with the civil matter. Detectives said in court papers that the complaint was received in January 2019 from Paramount’s employment counsel.

“We intent to vehemently … defend these untrue and inaccurate and fabricated allegations,” Davant said.

A preliminary hearing is set for May 2.