KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Ten Kansas nurses or nurse aides face charges stemming from a state investigation into allegations of Medicaid fraud, the theft of narcotic medications and the mistreatment of vulnerable adults.

Online records show that at least eight of those charged are still licensed to work in Kansas. Three health care workers from the Kansas City area were working at nursing homes when authorities say they committed the crimes, according to witness lists provided by the attorney general’s office.

Carol Moreland, executive director of the Kansas State Board of Nursing, declined to discuss the cases.

Lenexa resident Catherine Santaniello is charged with two felony counts of mistreatment of a dependent adult, including allegations of “knowing infliction of physical injury, unreasonable confinement or unreasonable punishment.” She also faces two misdemeanor charges for battery and making a false claim to Medicaid.

The charges were filed against Santaniello this week, but the incidents allegedly occurred in January 2017.

Santaniello didn’t respond to requests for comment. She’ll appear in court Oct. 24.

Erin Whitlow, the former nursing director at Parkway Care and Rehabilitation in Edwardsville, is charged with felony possession of morphine with the intent to distribute. The Leavenworth woman is also charged with felony mistreatment of two dependent adults by depriving them of “treatment, goods or services that were necessary to maintain” their physical or mental health.

The alleged incidents occurred in July and August 2017.

Whitlow’s attorney, Brian Costello, said she’s sought drug abuse treatment and is “willing to accept what she did.”

“We’ve been cooperating with the attorney general and she’s taking full responsibility for it,” Costello said.

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KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Ten Kansas nurses and nurse aides have been charged with Medicaid fraud, stealing narcotic medications and mistreating vulnerable adults.

The charges came after an enforcement sweep by the state’s attorney general. Online records show that eight of those charged are still licensed to work in Kansas.

State Board of Nursing Executive Director Carol Moreland declined to comment on pending litigation and questions about the licenses.

Witness lists show that three Kansas City area health care workers were working at nursing homes during the alleged crimes.

Lenexa resident Catherine Santaniello is charged with two felony counts of mistreatment of a dependent adult. She also faces two misdemeanor charges for battery and making a false claim to Medicaid.

Santaniello didn’t respond to requests for comment. She’ll appear in court Oct. 24.

TOPEKA –  Washburn University unveiled a statue honoring former U.S. senator Bob Dole Friday on the Topeka campus.

The bronze statue celebrates the lifetime achievements of the Washburn graduate and Russell native.

Today @WashburnUniv had the great pleasure and honor of unveiling a statue of @SenatorDole, a WU and @washburnlaw alumnus, the longest-serving Senate leader of the GOP, a presidential candidate and a fighter for veterans and the disabled. #washburnuniversity #washburnlaw pic.twitter.com/v73x5DnuEu

— Washburn Alumni Assn (@washburnalumni) September 28, 2018

This is the first commissioned bronze statue of him ever created. It is a gift to Washburn University from John Pinegar, BA ’82, and the Doug and Kathleen, BA ’84, Smith family.

Former U.S. senators Bob and Elizabeth Dole attended the unveiling with Jerry Farley, president, Washburn University, and other dignitaries including former senator Nancy Kassebaum.

Washburn conferred on Dole an honorary doctorate of laws in 1969 and an honorary doctorate of civil law in 1985. He received the Washburn Alumni Association Distinguished Service Award in 1966. The Washburn University School of Law Alumni Association honored him with the Distinguished Service Award in 1981 and the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.

Dole graduated from Washburn University in 1952 earning both a bachelor of arts and a juris doctorate in the same year because of credits he earned before enlisting in the U.S. Army during World War II.

He has developed a worldwide reputation for public service, holding elected positions in the Kansas House of Representatives, as Russell County (Kan.) attorney and as a U.S. congressman before spending nearly 30 years as a U.S. senator. He was chair of the Republican National Committee, Senate Minority Leader and Senate Majority Leader, where he set a record as the longest-serving Republican leader. Dole was President Gerald Ford’s vice presidential running mate in 1976 and a Republican presidential candidate in both 1988 and 1996, earning the GOP nomination in 1996.

A World War II veteran, he served as national chair of the World War II Memorial Campaign and authored the autobiographical “One Soldier’s Story,” among other books.

By DAN MARGOLIES

Attorneys alleging their meetings and phone calls with clients at the Leavenworth Detention Center were unlawfully recorded can move forward with a class-action lawsuit, a federal judge has ruled.

U.S. District Judge Stephen Bough found that a class action was the best way to proceed because “(i)t would be judicially uneconomical for the Court to entertain hundreds if not thousands of individualized claims” over the same issue.

That issue is whether the private operator of the facility, CoreCivic, and its provider of telephone and recording services, Securus Technologies, unlawfully intercepted privileged attorney-client communications in violation of federal and state wiretap laws and the Sixth Amendment right to counsel.

“This has always been a real important case to us in terms of the underlying implications of constitutional rights and the American criminal justice system,” said Michael A. Hodgson, one of the attorneys who filed the lawsuit.

“We took this case because of the nature of the privileged conversations themselves and the importance of the attorney-client relationship,” he added. “So I would say we’re cautiously optimistic and encouraged by the court’s ruling. We’ve got a long ways to go … but this was a great first step in that process.”

In his ruling, Bough wrote that he “acknowledges the importance of the attorney-client privilege and recognizes the sanctity of what is at stake in the present controversy — public trust in the legal system and the administration of justice.”

Hodgson said the class certified by Bough could eventually number as many as 1,000 attorneys.

The case, which was filed in 2016, is one of two class-action lawsuits spawned by disclosures that privileged attorney-client phone calls and meetings were recorded at the Leavenworth facility. The other case was filed on behalf of detainees and is in the midst of settlement negotiations.

Both suits, which contend the recordings violated federal and state wiretap laws, have the potential to expose CoreCivic and Securus to millions of dollars in damages.

A spokeswoman for CoreCivic, the largest private operator of prisons and detention facilities in the United States, said the company does not comment on pending litigation.

CoreCivic owns and operates Leavenworth Detention Center, which houses pre-trial detainees and has more than 1,100 beds.

The company insists it did nothing wrong because it says outgoing calls subject to recording were preceded by a pre-recorded message to that effect. But in-person meetings were recorded as well, and neither clients nor their attorneys were warned that those might also be recorded.

The recordings first came to light in a criminal case alleging that guards, inmates and outside parties had smuggled drugs and contraband into the Leavenworth Detention Center.

U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson, who is overseeing that case, appointed a special master – an independent third party – to investigate the extent of the problem and whether the recordings were provided to law enforcement officials and prosecutors.

In court filings, David Johnson, the attorney who filed the class action case on behalf of attorneys who say they were unlawfully recorded, says that data provided by Securus show that nearly 19,000 calls to 567 attorneys on a list compiled by the special master were recorded. And Johnson says that probably understates the number, since calls were also made to attorneys not on the special master’s list.

More than 1,300 of the recorded calls were between federal public defenders and their clients.

Dan Margolies is a senior reporter with the Kansas News Service. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies