Judge rejects nurse’s plea for lower bond in opioid patch case

Posted on March 16, 2018

*A McLean County judge denied a bond reduction request from James Rellihan. He’s a nurse who authorities say removed opioid patches from two nursing home patients last month.*
*(McLean County Jail photo)*

By Howard Packowitz

BLOOMINGTON – A McLean County judge has refused to lower the bond for a nurse suspected of stealing painkilling opioid patches from patients at two local nursing homes last month.

James Rellihan’s lawyer asked the judge to release his client on his own recognizance, while prosecutors requested a doubling of Rellihan’s $50,000 bond because a grand jury filed more serious residential burglary charges against him. Judge Casey Costigan decided not to change Rellihan’s bail.

Rellihan faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of residential burglary, a Class 1 felony.

Prosecutors said Rellilan worked at Bloomington Rehabilitation and Health Care Center on South Main Street. He allegedly went there on his day off February 24th and took three fentanyl patches off a terminally ill patient’s body.

Two days later, Rellihan is accused of going to Heritage Manor in Normal, where he used to work, and removed a fentanyl patch from a dementia patient.

Howard Packowitz can be reached at [email protected]

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