[bloodrayne]

Man Charged With Taking Mom's Morphine

Barnstable, Massachusetts - A Martha's Vineyard man is charged with taking morphine from his mother's intravenous drip minutes after she died.

Robert S. Peatie, 37, was arrested last week after a nurse at Cape Cod Hospital caught him pouring the morphine into a water bottle, the Cape Cod Times reported Friday.

His 62-year-old mother, Linda Peatie, had just died from an undisclosed illness.

The nurse, Maureen Beckler, told the newspaper she left Robert Peatie alone in the room while she sought a doctor to pronounce Linda Peatie dead.

Beckler returned to find the son "standing next to the IV stand holding the morphine bag. He was trying to pour it into a water bottle. He looked at me and said, 'I just need a minute more.'"
Beckler said she ordered the son away from the IV, and Peatie fled.

Police caught up to him at a restaurant near the hospital and charged him with larceny of a controlled substance and possession of morphine.
According to Hyannis police Detective Brian Guiney, Peatie later admitted pouring the morphine into the bottle and taking sips from it.

"After his mother was dead, that's when he took the top of the morphine bag off and poured it into his water bottle," Guiney wrote in his report.

Police said Peatie, a Vineyard Haven electrician, has a history of substance abuse.

"My brother is very sick," Jennifer Thompson, Peatie's sister, told the Times. She said she had forgiven her brother because that's what there mother would have wanted.

A judge ordered Peatie held on $2,000 bail at a hearing Wednesday in Barnstable Superior Court. His next scheduled court date is Feb. 17.