Jacqueline Lucille Collins, a former psychiatric technician at Atascadero State Hospital (ASH), was sentenced to 250 days of community service and a $500 fine for engaging in a sexual relationship with a patient. On Sept. 20, a judge also sentenced Collins, who has been on administrative leave since April 7, to three years of informal probation.
Collins reached a plea bargain with prosecutors and pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor charge of having a sexual relationship with a patient. Collins, who had worked with sexually violent predators at ASH since 2001, is barred from returning to the facility and does not have to register as a sex offender.
This article appears in Sep 22-29, 2005.