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A former employee of a Hoffman Estates psychiatric hospital pleaded guilty today to three counts of forgery for writing letters to patients saying they needed lobotomies.

Michelle Morrison, 53, of Elk Grove Village, was sentenced to 30 months of intensive probation by Judge Bridget Hughes in Rolling Meadows’ branch of Cook County Circuit Court.

Morrison told Hughes she was sorry for writing the letters and did it out of anger for being fired from Alexian Brothers Behavioral Health Hospital.

“I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to cause any harm,” Morrison said.

Hughes said the crime was mean-spirited and caused anguish to the three patients who received letters written on hospital stationery declaring they needed frontal lobotomies because their therapy programs failed.

The judge said probation was appropriate since Morrison was remorseful and had no prior record.

In addition to taking hospital stationery, Morrison had the hospital files of more than 30 patients at her home, prosecutors said.  Morrison began writing the letters in 2011 and was arrested in August 2012 following an investigation. She had been terminated from the hospital in 2010.

Source: Chicago Tribune