A licensed practical nurse who traveled from Florida to work a Vermont nursing-home assignment is now facing two felony drug charges, after state investigators say she took oxycodone meant for patients and used it herself. Anneka Brooks, 46, of Titusville, Florida, was arraigned October 13 in Vermont Superior Court, Orleans Criminal Division, on two counts of fraud or deceit involving a regulated drug. She pleaded not guilty by remote appearance.
The allegation
According to the Vermont Attorney General’s Office and the Caledonian Record, Brooks worked as a traveling licensed practical nurse at Union House Nursing Home, a roughly 44-bed long-term care facility in Glover, in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. Investigators allege that around November 8, 2025, she obtained oxycodone intended for patients and used it herself. The case was built by the Vermont Secretary of State’s Office of Professional Regulation (OPR) together with the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud and Residential Abuse Unit (MFRAU), which investigates abuse, neglect, and provider fraud tied to Vermont’s Medicaid-funded care facilities.
Regulators moved before prosecutors did: Brooks’ nursing license was suspended on August 11, 2026 under a stipulation and consent order with OPR, roughly two months before the criminal charges were filed. The court released her on conditions that include appearing at future hearings and providing fingerprints.
A traveling assignment, a thinner safety net
Union House is a for-profit facility whose nurse turnover, in federal CMS data compiled by ProPublica, runs well above Vermont’s average — the kind of staffing churn that often means a rotating cast of travelers covering medication passes at a facility where no one on shift has worked alongside them for more than a few weeks. That isn’t evidence of anything here; it’s the backdrop every diversion case at a short-staffed long-term care facility shares; the charges against Brooks concern oxycodone meant for patients on or about a single date.
Long-term care diversion cases almost always follow the same arc: a resident's pain scores stop making sense, a controlled-substance count comes up short, and by the time anyone pulls the MAR, the nurse who was pulling the drug has moved on to the next contract. I've done travel assignments, and the honest truth is a facility that's burning through LPNs fast enough to need travelers covering med carts is also a facility that doesn't have the bandwidth to double-check every count the way a fully staffed unit would. That's not an excuse for diversion — it's a staffing problem that makes diversion easier to miss for longer. If you're a traveler stepping into a facility like this, document your counts like someone is going to need them in eight months, because someone might.
What's next
Brooks has pleaded not guilty, and no trial date has been reported. She is presumed innocent unless and until a Vermont court finds otherwise. The Nursing Directory will update this article if the case is resolved or if Brooks’ nursing license is formally revoked rather than suspended.