SARANAC LAKE — A St. Joseph’s Addiction Treatment & Recovery Center worker has been charged with having engaged in sexual activity with one of the patients.

Local police charged Erica B. Holtz, 37, of Vermontville with rape in the third degree Tuesday at 5 p.m.

Saranac Lake Police Chief Charles Potthast said an investigation found Holtz committed the offences in November 2018 and December 2018.

“These were two adults, and there was no force or manipulation,” Potthast said, “but by the statute, a patient in a rehab cannot give consent.”

Holtz was arraigned in the Harrietstown Court and released under the supervision of the Probation Department to answer the charges at a later date.