Jimmy Lee Theodore, 27, faced charges for identity theft, wire fraud and unauthorized debit card use.  In West Palm Beach federal court, he admitted to having hundreds of debit cards in other people's names sent to his girlfriend's Pembroke Pines house. According to court records when U.S. postal inspectors went to the home, they found Holy Cross Hospital patient records as well as hundreds of patient records from a doctor's office. The wire fraud charge on its own carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Theodore had recruited his aunt to get her friends — one who worked as an emergency room clerk at Holy Cross Hospital — to steal patients' records. The hospital clerk, Natasha Orr, cut a plea deal with federal prosecutors in January and could face up to 10 years in prison when she is sentenced later this month.

Holy Cross Hospital computer technicians found Orr had accessed about 1,500 patient files between April 2009 and September 2010. The hospital ended up offering free identity-theft monitoring to more than 44,000 patients who visited the emergency room during that period.

Source: (The Sun Sentinel, "Ringleader in Holy Cross Hospital ID thefts pleads guilty," Jon Burstein, 6 Apr 2011)