Joe Margrey Jr. and Emilia Tehonica.

Both are nurses and both are accused of falsifying records at Carthage Area Hospital to obtain drugs.

But their unions want to know if a faulty computerized pill dispenser is actually to blame.

"Nurses at Carthage Area Hospital have been reporting numerous times over the past several months of the medical dispense system being totally defective," said Mark Genovese, spokesman for the New York State Nurses Association. 

The union calls it a situation ripe for abuse - nurses, punching in a request for one kind of drug, and in some cases, getting several other kinds.

"You're expecting that the system will dispense one type of medication and a certain amount of it, and something else happens," said Genovese.

According to the union, the hospital has now switched to manually counting out pills, and a new dispenser will arrive in March. 

But for at least a couple of people, is it too little, too late?

"It really is a case where the hospital had not yet responded and now we have two people that are facing charges," said Genovese.

The New York State Nurses Association says it's investigating whether the faulty dispenser led to a faulty arrest.

The other union, Service Employees International Union Local 1199, has filed a grievance, asking that its nurse, Joe Margrey Jr., be reinstated.

Hospital officials didn't return our calls for comment.

See our earlier report on Tehonica

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