Facility Director Charged with Stealing Drugs from Patient Fired

EAST HAVEN, CT - Officials at the assisted living facility at Mariner’s Point are trying to limit the fallout after the executive director was arrested last week for allegedly stealing drugs from one of the facility’s patients.

The facility, which cares for seniors in the area, has put out a press release saying the director, Barbara Camillo, has been dismissed from her job.

The press release also states that the facility has “zero tolerance for any manner of exploitation, including theft - which made it especially disappointing to learn that a former executive director is facing charges for theft. She is no longer employed by Mariner’s Point.”

The press release goes on to say: “The situation is particularly disheartening because the director had been a respected associate and community member in excellent standing for nearly two years. In light of the current opioid crisis afflicting so many, we are saddened that it appears to have affected our community and someone so close to us.”

Police said on June 19 a complainant advised officers that she had her suspicions that someone kept entering her apartment while she was at her doctor’s appointments to steal from her.

The complainant stated that she brought her suspicions to her doctor who recommended she purchase a hidden camera to try and catch the thief in the act, police said.

The complainant stated that she set the hidden camera up while she was at a doctor’s appointment earlier that day and received a motion detection alert on her mobile phone.

The complainant stated that she observed a white female in a pink patterned dress, who she was able to identify as the Executive Director of Village at Mariner’s Point, Barbara Camillo, 40, police said.

Camillo is seen in video snapshots rummaging through the complainants personal things in what the complainant believed was a search for the keys to a locked tool box where her Oxycodone is kept, police said.

A second set of video snapshots show Camillo standing over an unlocked tool box with an orange pill bottle in her hand, police said.

The complainant confirmed that there was no lawful reason for Camillo to be in her apartment going through her medication box.

Contact was made with Camillo at Village at Mariner’s Point. After a brief interview, Camillo allegedly admitted to entering the complainant’s apartment with the sole purpose of stealing Oxycodone, police said in a news release. During the interview, Camillo was found to be in possession of several stolen pills that she turned over to the investigating officer, police said.

Camillo was placed under arrest and was charged with Burglary in the Third Degree, Larceny in the Sixth Degree, and Possession of a Controlled Substance.