A former Pleasant Plains woman who is accused of using another person’s identity and fake nursing credentials to work as an elementary school nurse in Searcy for four years appeared in court Thursday after her arrest Wednesday night in Missouri.
In announcing the arrest of Susan Elaine Boyce, 59, U.S. Attorney Christopher Thyer said Thursday, “We could not rest knowing she might try to pose as a nurse in some other town to get another health-care-related position in a school or other facility. The health and safety of anyone who would have trusted she was a qualified health-care provider was at risk. Thankfully, people no longer have to worry, now that she is in custody.”
Boyce appeared briefly Thursday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jerome Kearney in Little Rock to enter an innocent plea through defense attorney Kim Driggers, an assistant federal public defender. Driggers didn’t challenge an order that because Boyce is a potential flight risk, she must remain in custody for now.
Boyce’s trial date on charges of wire fraud, aggravated identify theft and misuse of a Social Security number was tentatively set for March 3 before Chief U.S. District Judge Brian Miller, although initial trial dates are usually postponed.
Boyce was indicted Sept. 5 by a federal grand jury, accused of using Arkansas State Board of Nursing license numbers and a Social Security number belonging to someone else to work at the Sidney Deener Elementary School in Searcy from 2007-12.
The indictment, which was unsealed on Sept. 12, charged her with single counts of aggravated identity theft and misuse of a Social Security number, as well as five counts of wire fraud.
Thyer explained the wire fraud charges by saying that when she cashed her monthly paycheck, a digital image of her check was sent from her bank to the school district’s bank through the Federal Reserve Bank.
Boyce, who was considered a fugitive, was found in Howell County, Mo., and arrested by federal agents and local sheriff’s deputies who were “acting upon a lead generated by the Office of the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,” Thyer said in a news release.
When her indictment was unsealed, Thyer said that she could have been using the name Suzanne Pitts or Suzanne Johnson, and that she may have been with an armed man using the name Jack Pitts or Jack Boyce.
No further information about Boyce has been released.
Arkansas, Pages 13 on 01/31/2014