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SLO County’s great cake caper

August 17, 2016

Susan Cameron

By KAREN VELIE

It turned out to be sort of a half-baked plan.

On June 7, Susan Cameron, a nursing supervisor in charge of medical staff at the San Luis Obispo County Jail, brought a cake in for her co-workers to enjoy. “While all the employees were in another room eating cake,” Cameron was allegedly getting high on opioids.

But Cameron appears not to have considered a video camera that monitored the room. She was caught on video stealing and consuming an inmate’s prescription methadone, according to a search warrant affidavit.

A day later, Cameron failed to appear at work. Co-workers tried to reach her by phone but she did not answer.

A deputy was dispatched to Cameron’s home in Cayucos where the officer found her inside the home, unresponsive with foam coming from her mouth, the search warrant affidavit said.

Because Cameron was cold to the touch, the deputy started CPR. Once paramedics arrived, Cameron was given a shot of Narcan, an opioid blocker that can reverse an overdose, and transported to Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center.

Following Cameron’s overdose, Commander Jim Voge mounted an investigation. One of the therapists interviewed said she had discovered a discrepancy in the log from June 7, the day before Cameron overdosed. Nurses giving drugs to inmates are required to initial each dose. But, in several cases, the initials were missing.

In addition, the therapist noticed methadone missing from a prescription container, she said.

Witnesses told investigators of multiple incidents in which Cameron failed to follow drug dispensing protocols and that her behavior was of concern.

“That behavior consisted of rambling, fidgety, pale and diaphoretic (heavy sweating),” the affidavit read.

After Voge viewed the tape of Cameron using methadone at work, the sheriff’s department applied for a warrant to search Cameron’s home.

“It would not be uncommon for an employee who steals prescription medication from their employer and consumes it while at work, to conceal it and remove it from their place of employment,” the probable cause statement used to obtain the search warrant read. “It would not be uncommon for that employee to store that stolen prescription medication at their home, so as to be able to use it at a later time.”

The statement also suggested that, “it would also not be uncommon for Susan Cameron, a registered nurse, to steal and/or forge blank doctor’s scripts… .”

On June 22, sheriff deputies served the search warrant on Cameron’s home.

The San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office is reviewing a request from the sheriff’s department to file a criminal complaint against Cameron, Assistant District Attorney Lee Cunningham said.

Employees from both San Luis Obispo County’s human resources and sheriff’s departments failed to respond to questions about Cameron’s employment status.

The kind of cake Cameron brought to the jail was not reported.


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Almost as good as the copper clapper caper…….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjquGpmgwOo


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That is such a sad story, I bet even the cake was in tiers…Or, maybe she was just borrowing the drugs, and it was a sponge cake? Thank you, I’ll be here all week!


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The Big Question Mark ?


Why did it take almost 2 weeks to apply for and serve a search warrant?


Did they allow her ample time to sanitize the apartment of anything else that was incriminating?


What I find terribly frightening is the thought of the incarcerated people who were ill and whose health may have been compromised or jeopardized by a health professional who was under the influence.


To top it off remember the sheriff’s office medical examiner who drove to work and got into a hit and run accident while very drunk.


WTF is going on ????


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My big question would be that over a period of time medication was missing or there was no initial but no reported it. oh wait, they would have reported that to their supervisor. QUESTION: If she had not shown up for work, and found in the condition she was, was anyone going to ever address this? Should there be a two tier reporting protocol under the circumstances, like reporting to two individuals.


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Citizen, mea culpa for the wrong employment classification. i think you missed the point because you have thin skin. Do you work as an officer of the court?

Still favoritism because she works for an arm of the law.


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Behavior like this is the icing on the cake, it really frosts me.


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This is very sad but cartoons would truly add to the unspoken words. There is a benefit in illustrations that would incite laughter, like some may not want to be laughed at and not do it.

I’m sorry but my twisted humor sees a cartoon that would laugh you off the internet, some of this stuff you can’t make up. I vote for a calcoast cartoonist, there’s to much material just waiting for a therapy laugh.


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Am I the only one who was waiting for there to be a file baked into the cake?


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“The San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office is reviewing a request from the sheriff’s department to file a criminal complaint against Cameron, Assistant District Attorney Lee Cunningham said.”

Why are they reviewing it? Seems pretty clear she has committed a crime more than once.

Less “evidence” than that would have a private citizen handcuffed and on their way to jail. Let’s stop this favoritism and prosecute this officers of the court like very one else.


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The Da’s Office is required by law to read and review all requests to file criminal complaints. That’s why they are reviewing it. No favoritism here.


The other question is whether a nursing supervisor at the jail is an “officer of the court”. Read the legal definition and the answer is “no”.


So anxious to blame the DA’s Office for something, that you ignore legal procedure? Then make up your own facts?


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As long as the DA is working for SLO County there is the possibility that pressure from higher ups will squash any charges. Something like this is probably the tip of the iceberg. Under oath, it is possible that witnesses called to the stand during a trial might expose ‘the rest of the story’ leading to further embarrassment to the county.


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