Widow's drug case is revisited
She completed a rehab program in 2004.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR PENNSYLVANIA BUREAU
MERCER, Pa. -- The Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole is taking another look at Donna Moonda.
The widow of slain Hermitage, Pa., urologist Dr. Gulam Moonda is serving three years' probation after pleading no contest in 2004 to stealing the drug Fentanyl from UPMC Hospital in Greenville, where she worked as a nurse anesthetist.
But after her arrest Monday on charges of aiding and abetting her former lover, Damian Bradford, in Dr. Moonda's May 13, 2005, killing on the Ohio Turnpike, the Probation and Parole Board is looking at her earlier drug case again, said Mercer County District Attorney James Epstein.
"It could definitely have an effect on her Mercer County case," Epstein said of the new charges. "The [drug] case could go back to Judge [Francis] Fornelli, and if a violation is proven, she might be facing prison."
Epstein said probation and parole officials began looking into Moonda's case Wednesday, and he expects that inquiry to be finished today.
"I would expect action to be taken next week," Epstein said.
Epstein explained that probation officials are examining the contract Moonda signed as part of her agreement to plead no contest and enter into a first-time offender's program where she would be given state probation without a court verdict.
Moonda was arrested June 21, 2004, after admitting to a drug investigator from the Pennsylvania attorney general's office that she was removing Fentanyl -- a powerful painkiller -- from the hospital and taking it home to self-medicate.
"I have a problem, and I need help," she told hospital officials when confronted in February 2004, according to court papers filed in the case.
The hospital pharmacy department became suspicious of her and reviewed 60 surgical cases involving Moonda and other nurses and discovered that her use of Fentanyl far exceeded that of the other practitioners, court papers stated.
Rehabilitaiton
After authorities began their investigation of her but before her drug arrest, Moonda entered into an intensive outpatient program at Gateway Rehabilitation Center in Aliquippa, Pa., which she completed in about two months.
A letter from her therapist in the program sent to the court stated she was compliant and cooperative.
"She gained insight into the disease of addiction, recovery process and relapse prevention. Ms. Moonda showed a positive attitude toward treatment and active participation in therapy," her therapist wrote.
Moonda also wanted to become a volunteer at Gateway, her therapist said.
It was at Gateway that federal prosecutors say Moonda met Bradford, and the two had an affair and allegedly hatched a plan kill her husband.
Bradford pleaded guilty Monday to interstate stalking and using a weapon in a crime of violence. He will be given a 17 1/2 year prison term in exchange for testifying against Moonda.
She faces a detention hearing in Akron today. Federal prosecutors have said a grand jury will convene sometime in the next month to determine if she will face any other charges.
Her nursing license in Pennsylvania was suspended in October 2005 based on her drug conviction. The Ohio Nursing Board is considering similar action.
cioffi@vindy.com