Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina announced that a 48-year-old Browns Mills woman has been indicted for punching an emergency room doctor at a Pemberton Township hospital.
Shelly Webb was indicted on a single count of Aggravated Assault (Fourth Degree).
The indictment was returned January 20 and signed by First Assistant Prosecutor Philip S. Aronow.
The investigation began after officers from the Pemberton Township Police Department were called to Capital Health at Deborah – Emergency Services in the 200 block of Trenton Road just before 7:30 a.m. on March 30, 2020, for a report of an assault on a physician by a patient.
The investigation revealed that Webb came into the facility complaining of a migraine headache, and believed she may have been struck by lightning.
She became belligerent upon being questioned and, when the doctor attempted to examine Webb’s head, she lunged forward and punched her in the abdomen.
“Given the dramatic rise since the beginning of the pandemic in violent incidents against health care workers – who already put their health at risk in the service of others simply by coming to work – we will continue to take a zero-tolerance approach toward assaults on employees of health care facilities,” Prosecutor Coffina said.
The investigation was conducted by the Pemberton Township Police Department.
An indictment is an accusation. Defendants are presumed innocent unless or until proven guilty.