A Monroe County jury has convicted former Trauma Star division chief Andrea Thompson of covering up the theft of powerful painkillers by the air ambulance program's former chief flight nurse, capping a four-year scandal that shook the Florida Keys' only emergency helicopter service. Thompson now faces up to 68 years in prison and is scheduled for sentencing on October 29 in Key West.
According to the Miami Herald, the six-member jury found Thompson guilty of two counts of official misconduct, three counts of giving law enforcement false information, two counts of attempted evidence tampering, and three counts of tampering with a witness. Prosecutors said Thompson, who was hired by Monroe County Fire Rescue in July 2001 and earned an annual salary of $151,127, booked former chief flight nurse Lynda Rusinowski into an out-of-county detox program and later a New Jersey rehabilitation facility rather than reporting Rusinowski's drug theft to her superiors or sheriff's office detectives, per the same report. The Herald also reports that Thompson ordered a subordinate to remove drugs and paraphernalia from Rusinowski's truck and misled both detectives and her own bosses about what she knew.
Thompson had received an award for 20 years of service just three years before the scandal broke, the Herald notes. She was fired in 2024, and Monroe County Fire Rescue formally terminated her employment on September 27 of that year, following a recommendation in an August 2024 grand jury report that urged county leaders to immediately fire her and permanently bar her from ever working for the department again, according to Keys Weekly. Thompson had initially been suspended without pay after her August 2024 indictment, the outlet reported.
How the Scandal Began
The case traces back to Rusinowski, the Trauma Star program's chief flight nurse, who admitted to stealing fentanyl, ketamine and morphine from Monroe County Fire Rescue helicopters to feed her own addiction, per the Herald. A 2023 clerk of court audit cited in the August 2024 grand jury report found that more than 600 controlled substance vials — including fentanyl, Dilaudid, ketamine and morphine — were stolen or unaccounted for over a 13-month period, according to Keys Weekly, exposing severe deficiencies in how the county logged and safeguarded emergency medical supplies.
Rusinowski was sentenced in February by Circuit Judge Mark Jones to 60 days in county jail and five years of drug court probation after entering an open plea of no contest to 14 counts of grand theft of a controlled substance and three counts of official misconduct, the same outlet reported. She was also ordered to pay $1,152 in restitution to the clerk of court and $2,850 in investigation costs.
The cover-up allegedly reached beyond Thompson. The same grand jury indictment that charged Thompson also charged then-County Administrator Roman Gastesi and Monroe County's medical director at the time, Dr. Sandra Schwemmer, each with one count of official misconduct, according to the Herald. Gastesi entered a pre-trial intervention program in July 2025, and the state attorney's office later dropped the charges against him; he has since sought reimbursement for $127,838 in legal fees, per the Herald's reporting.
Charges Dropped Against Medical Director
Schwemmer, who oversaw the medications controlled and distributed by Monroe County Fire Rescue, faced additional charges of providing false information to law enforcement and altering patient records, the Herald reports. She entered a pretrial intervention agreement in October 2024 that required her to provide truthful testimony, and the state attorney's office subsequently dropped her case. In a statement to Local 10 News, Schwemmer's defense highlighted her 45-year medical career with no prior disciplinary actions, and she maintained she had performed all required duties and was pleased to put the case behind her.
Monroe County canceled its $124,842 annual contract with Schwemmer's medical firm immediately after her indictment in August 2024, appointing Key West Fire Rescue's medical director as interim oversight head, according to the Key West Chamber of Commerce. Lower-level crew members were also swept into the scandal: Monroe County Sheriff's detectives arrested Trauma Star paramedics Damian Roberto Suarez and Harold Jaesson Perez in October 2022 on felony charges of evidence destruction and obstruction, accusing them of lying to investigators and deleting group chat messages about Rusinowski's thefts, per EMS1. Both paramedics were subsequently restricted to non-EMS fire response duties, the outlet reported.
A Prosecutor's Warning on Accountability
Prosecutor Joseph Mansfield said public officials have a heightened responsibility to act with honesty and integrity, and that no position or title places anybody beyond accountability, according to the Herald. Under Florida Statute § 838.022, official misconduct by a public servant is a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison per count and triggers statutory forfeiture of state retirement and pension benefits upon conviction, per the Florida Legislature.
Monroe County Fire Rescue operates the Trauma Star helicopter ambulance program, which is jointly administered with the Monroe County Sheriff's Office and completes approximately 1,400 life-saving flights annually without balance-billing county residents, according to Monroe County. Flight times to mainland Level I trauma centers in Miami typically run 50 to 55 minutes, underscoring just how critical the program is for the isolated island chain — a role Hoodline previously detailed in the air evacuation of a Key West shark bite victim.
In the wake of the grand jury report, Monroe County overhauled its emergency drug protocols, installing biometric-locked safes, computer-based inventory tracking systems, hangar surveillance cameras and dedicated quality assurance oversight personnel, the Key West Chamber of Commerce reported. The county also previously approved a major fleet overhaul in October 2023, purchasing three new Leonardo AW139 helicopters funded by an infrastructure sales tax to replace its aging Sikorsky S76 aircraft, according to Leonardo, with the new aircraft allowing for dual-patient transports and expanded non-stop range to Miami hospitals.
