JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. — An unlicensed nurse who worked in Colorado nursing homes pleaded guilty to the charges against her in Jefferson County court this month.
Heather Wood pleaded guilty to criminal impersonation and unauthorized nursing practice. A forgery charge was dismissed.
Wood was arrested in Texas in July 2018 and accused of pretending to be a nurse at two Colorado nursing homes. The case was first exposed in Contact7’s “Unlicensed, Unpunished” series. The Denver7 investigation team found that Wood worked at Elk Run Assisted Living in Evergreen in 2016 and later at Glenwood Springs Health Care in Glenwood Springs in 2017.
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Contact7 found that at one point, Wood printed the license number of a woman named Heather Stone from Texas, and Colorado regulators seemed to take her word for it. While working at the Glenwood Springs nursing home, staff discovered she didn’t have a nursing license, and they contacted regulators, who then determined Heather Stone and Heather Wood were two different people.
Wood’s case in Garfield County is still open. She is expected in court for that on April 18.
She will face sentencing for the crimes in Jefferson County on April 22.