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Arrest warrant adds to mounting legal troubles for Colorado nurse impersonator

Posted at 10:58 AM, Jun 29, 2018
and last updated 2018-06-29 13:03:54-04

DENVER -- A woman who admitted to stealing the license number of a registered nurse to gain employment at a Commerce City nursing home is facing a warrant for her arrest and two separate pending criminal trials.

Jennifer Jackson, who also uses the names Jennifer Stewart and Jennifer Minggia, is facing the separate pending criminal cases in El Paso County and Denver linked to allegations she repeatedly impersonated licensed professionals to get health care jobs

On Friday, Jackson was separately ordered to appear in court after the Colorado attorney general’s office filed a motion asking that she be held in contempt of court for claiming to be a nurse on an apartment rental application. When she did not arrive for her scheduled court appearance, the judge issued a bench warrant for her arrest. 

The whole series of events began when the real registered nurse Jennifer Jackson received an anonymous phone call in February 2017 alerting her that another woman was using her license to work at Woodridge Terrace in Commerce City. 

The licensed nurse called police, who found Jackson working at the facility and promptly took her into custody. 

Jackson reached a plea deal in that case and was sentenced to four years of probation. But just weeks before sentencing, prosecutors say she again used the other Jennifer Jackson’s nursing license to get hired by Readylink Staffing and work several shifts at Terrace Gardens Healthcare Center in Colorado Springs. Prosecutors in El Paso County brought several charges against her in December, including unauthorized practice of nursing. 

READ MORE: A full timeline of Jennifer Jackson's history treating patients without a license

Last month, prosecutors in Denver charged Jackson with identity theft, forgery and attempting to influence a public servant linked to allegations she used the identity of a certified nurse aide (CNA) the year before she began using the other Jennifer Jackson’s RN license.

In that case, investigators say Jackson called a representative at the Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) and identified herself as a certified nurse aide named Jennifer Smith. She then managed to reset the password for Smith’s CNA account and logged in to change the address, telephone number and email address linked to that account to her own information. Jackson is accused of submitting an application to renew Smith’s nurse aide certificate and using that certificate to apply for and obtain jobs. 

The third separate case that now has Jackson facing arrest came when she ran afoul of the office of Colorado attorney general Cynthia Coffman. 

Coffman’s office obtained a permanent injunctionon behalf of the state Board of Nursing against Jackson in September 2017 in which Jackson admitted to working for eight different medical facilities using the licenses of others and agreed to stop holding herself out as a medical professional. 

But last month, attorneys in Coffman’s office said they learned Jackson violated that injunction by filling out an application to rent an apartment in Thornton in February and listed her occupation as a registered nurse for Readylink Staffing.

“Incredulously, she even listed her employer as the agency that placed her in a position in Colorado Springs for which she is currently facing criminal charges,” the attorney general’s office wrote in a motion seeking a contempt of court citation against Jackson. 

The motion asks a judge to imprison Jackson, stating that a fine simply does not go far enough. 

“Her conduct not only shows a disregard for the legal system but also for the health and safety of the public as she does not seem to grasp or have concern about holding herself out as an RN if it benefits herself,” the motion says. 

Jackson did not show up to court Friday to be advised of those allegations. During the hearing, Senior Assistant Attorney General Felice Haas told the judge she had evidence that after Jackson was evicted for falsifying her rental application she then applied to rent another apartment again claiming to be a registered nurse.

"I feel she's a threat to the public," Haas told the judge.  

The judge set Jackson’s bond on the bench warrant for $1,000.

She is due to be arraigned on the Denver charges on July 26, and is next scheduled to appear in court on her El Paso County charges in September.