A former nurse with a criminal history that dates back to the 1990s has been sentenced to over three years in federal prison for stealing pain pills from nursing homes and private residences in northwest Iowa.
Court records show 47-year-old Sarah Ann Haptonstall of Onawa admits she stole pain medications from a home and several apartments in Onawa in 2023. The year before, while working at nursing homes in Onawa and Sergeant Bluffs, she stole pills from someone in hospice and three other elderly residents and gave them Tylenol instead. Those crimes happened after she received a suspended 10-year prison sentence in state court for taking hydrocodone pills while she was working as a delivery driver for a pharmacy.
Haptonstall also admits she embezzled $6000 while working as a bookkeeper for a small, family-owned business in Onawa in 2023. Haptonstall was first convicted of theft in 1997 in state court, but at that time over 30 charges were dismissed when she agreed to pay restitution to victims. In 2006, she pleaded guilty to a felony forgery charge — the same year she was first licensed as a nurse in Iowa. Haptonstall was convicted of illegally trying to get a prescription for hydrocodone in 2014. Her state nursing license was renewed the following year.