After the case was initially dismissed because of a witness’s inability to properly identify the defendant, a circuit court judge found probable cause in the case of a Casper woman accused of abuse of a vulnerable adult and false imprisonment.

Julie Cross, 50, appeared for a second preliminary hearing Tuesday morning after prosecutors re-filed charges against her in mid-August.

She’s accused of tying the head of a disabled patient to a bed while she was a nurse at NOWCAP Services in north Casper.

A director of the facility said in court Tuesday that Cross was no longer employed by the organization.

Assistant District Attorney Patrick LeBrun called Casper Police Officer Sarah Price, who wrote the police report, and Joshua Brown, the community services director of the facility Cross worked at, to the stand in the hearing.

Price was called to the scene in the afternoon of July 14 where she was told by Brown that Cross had tied a patient’s head to her bead with a scarf, according to the affidavit Price filed with the charges.

Two nurses at the facility reported the incident to their superiors and told Price it took them about five minutes to untie it.

Price testified to that effect. She said when she arrived at the scene, Brown provided her with written statements from the nurses who found the patient tied to the bed and photos of the scene, including where the scarf had become secured to the bed.

Brown testified he set the schedule for nurses, noting if the incident occurred on a Monday as alleged, Cross would not have been working with another staff member who the defense indicated may have been on staff that night.

Price said she was told Cross was working alone. Brown said he believed the same but wasn’t absolutely certain, noting the information could be found in the schedule.

Price said she didn’t believe the patient was capable of speaking up or caring for herself and added she was unable to speak with the patient when she was at the scene.

Judge Nichole Collier found probable cause in the case and bound it over at the hearing’s conclusion.

If convicted, Cross faces as much as 11 years in prison and an $11,000 fine.

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