The attorney for a Collier County paramedic accused of stealing painkillers from an ambulance is calling the allegations misleading.
Andrew Seager, 34, is charged with stealing two vials of Dilaudid earlier this month, after a Battalion Chief with Collier County Emergency Medical Services noticed discrepancies in Controlled Substance Log Book. She reported the theft of the two vials from an ambulance at EMS Station 10 on Immokalee Road. A report from the Collier County Sheriff's Office indicated that Seager was one of only two people with access to the drug at the time.
"If somebody's around when a crime is committed, they're targeted by virtue of having been there," said attorney Mike Chionopoulos, who represents Seager. He believes investigators jumped to conclusions when they arrested Seager for the Dilaudid theft.
"Andrew was suicidal, and he admits to being suicidal," Chionopoulos said.
He said that Seager suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome, or PTSD, and that his client told a co-worker that if he were to commit suicide, he would use a painkiller, for which Dilaudid is often used.
A Sheriff's Office report states that "During the course of the interview, Seager alluded to the fact that he had stolen two vials of Dilaudid from Medic 10."
"Alluded to?" Chionopoulos asked. "What does that mean? No, he never said he took those vials, he did not take those vials, and I'm very sure that once we fully develop the facts of this case, he'll be vindicated."
He said that Seager submitted to a drug test that came back clean, but acknowledges that doesn't prove his client did not steal the Dilaudid.
When asked whether Seager has offered another explanation as to what could have happened to the missing vials, Chionopoulos said:
"Those are facts that will come out at trial, but I can tell you there is good evidence to show that he did not take those vials."
Seager was a person of interest in previous investigations of Dilaudid theft in February 2015. He is on administrative leave from Collier County EMS.
