| UPDATE 8/22/2019 - The Braxton County Ambulance EMS director has been arrested after a county employee walked into her office and saw her trying to inject a substance between her toes, and an inventory of her office found missing and tampered with narcotics, court records said.
Jamie Mathes was arrested Thursday in Nicholas County by West Virginia State Police Thursday on several counts of obtaining a controlled substance by misrepresentation and grand larceny, according to a criminal complaint.
After the employee observed the syringe incident, an inventory was conducted of narcotics stored in her office for advanced life support, the complaint said.
The complaint said the inventory found 166 vials of morphine, 146 vials of fentanyl and 28 vials of Versed, a sedative, that had been used or partially used and a number of used syringes.
Mathes was arraigned on the charges in Nicholas County and a $25,000 cash bond was set.
Mathes has been on paid administrative leave.
State troopers and the Mountain Lakes Drug and Violent Crime Task Force are looking into the Braxton County allegations.
DRUGS MISSING AT BRAXTON EMS
8/18/2019 - West Virginia State Troopers and drug task force members are investigating the possible theft of narcotics used in Braxton County ambulances.
Braxton County 911 Director John Hoffman said he entered the office of Braxton County Ambulance EMS Director Jamie Mathes on Aug. 5 and found an undisclosed problem that led him to call State Police.
Hoffman’s emergency appointment as temporary ambulance director was approved Friday by the Braxton County Commission.
Mathes, who was off when the problem was discovered, is on paid administrative leave.
State laws require advanced life support ambulances to carry very small amounts of three narcotics, morphine, fentanyl and versed. Kanawha County paramedics said those narcotics must be strictly controlled.
“It stays locked up no matter where it's at. Whenever you use it on a call you put it back in the lock box. You don't leave it laying around whenever you take the patient into the hospital When you open the lock box, get what you need, put it back in, shut the box,” Kanawha County paramedic Lt. Ronnie Wentz said.
State troopers and the Mountain Lakes Drug and Violent Crime Task Force are looking into the Braxton County allegations.
At this time, no charges have been filed. | 
