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NORRISTOWN >> A Bucks County woman’s opioid addiction destroyed her promising career as a paramedic with a Montgomery County ambulance company and she faces several years of court supervision for acquiring pain medications by fraud or subterfuge while on the job.“Addicts come up with devious ways to get drugs. They aren’t thinking straight. You’re wound differently when you’re an addict,” Judge Gary S. Silow addressed Tara Marzucco, who pleaded guilty to a felony charge of obtaining controlled substances by fraud or subterfuge from the ambulance company.
With the charge, prosecutors alleged Marzucco, while employed as a paramedic with Second Alarmers Association and Rescue Squad in Abington, extracted morphine and liquid fentanyl from syringes for her personal use and then replaced the missing narcotics with saline. Marzucco then altered medication logs to try to cover her tracks, prosecutors alleged.
“The fact of the matter is clearly you put a lot of people at risk with your conduct. But that lack of insight was the result of your addiction. It doesn’t excuse anything, but it does explain certain things,” Silow added.
Marzucco, 34, of the 700 block of Roger Road, Warminster, was sentenced on Tuesday to 24 months in the county’s Intermediate Punishment program, the first 12 months of which must be served under house arrest. That means Marzucco will have to wear an electronic ankle bracelet and probation officials will monitor her whereabouts. Marzucco will be permitted to leave her home only for court-approved purposes.
The remaining 12 months of the sentence will be spent under intensive probation.
Silow also ordered Marzucco to complete an additional five years of probation, following parole, and to complete 100 hours of community service. The sentence means Marzucco will be under court supervision for a total of seven years.
The judge added Marzucco, a mother of two, will be placed under addict supervision by probation officials.
“The reason I’m doing this is you need not destroy your children’s lives any further,” Silow told Marzucco, explaining his reasons for not ordering jail time. “But if you violate, I’ll send you away, you’re gone.”
State sentencing guidelines allowed for probation or up to several months in jail for the offense.
Assistant District Attorney Robert Kolansky sought jail time against Marzucco, arguing she put patients at risk of not receiving the proper pain medication dosages with the elaborate scheme.“It certainly takes some time and some thought and it takes some thought to cover her tracks as well,” said Kolansky.
There was no evidence that Marzucco’s conduct harmed anyone treated by Marzucco or Second Alarmers, Kolansky said.
“But there’s a big element of public trust and she greatly breached it. These Second Alarmers and paramedics in general are entrusted to go out and give the appropriate treatment and they’re taking care of people at their absolute worst moments in hideous and terrible situations so to know that somebody was out there under the influence herself or putting others at risk of giving these altered drugs was pretty significant,” Kolansky said.
Defense lawyer Vincent DiFabio argued for leniency on behalf of Marzucco, adding she has obtained counseling for her addiction.
“She was a stellar paramedic with numerous commendations, saved a lot of lives, delivered a baby, so her background was stellar. It was a job that she was good at and which she loved and she will never be able to go back to it,” said DiFabio, explaining Marzucco’s addiction began after she suffered a neck injury several years ago and she was prescribed Percocet by doctors.
“When you looked at her background, you looked at the reason for the addiction and what she did and you take all that into consideration with the sentencing code and the factors for probation, I think probation was really warranted,” said DiFabio, adding Marzucco is remorseful and regrets her conduct. “She feels very bad for any way she would have damaged the reputation of Second Alarmers because she did love working there.”
The investigation began in April 2015 when officials of Second Alarmers discovered that tamper seals for more than a dozen syringes, containing morphine or fentanyl, had been broken or damaged, according to a criminal complaint.
Marzucco subsequently told Abington detectives that she broke the seals on the syringes to that she could remove the medications.
“The medications were removed using another syringe. In some instances she said that she removed all the narcotics, in other instances she partially removed the narcotics,” Abington Detective Philip Geliebter wrote in the arrest affidavit. “Marzucco said that she would then replace the missing narcotics with sterile saline.”
Marzucco told detectives she used the stolen narcotics for her own use, administering the fentanyl through her nose and administering the morphine directly into muscle. Marzucco admitted using the narcotics one or twice a week.“Marzucco said that the use of the narcotics was the result of a neck injury she sustained approximately seven years ago. She had been using Percocet but she said that as her tolerance increased the prescription was no longer enough,” Geliebter wrote.
NORRISTOWN >> A Bucks County woman’s opioid addiction destroyed her promising career as a paramedic with a Montgomery County ambulance company and she faces several years of court supervision for acquiring pain medications by fraud or subterfuge while on the job.“Addicts come up with devious ways to get drugs. They aren’t thinking straight. You’re wound differently when you’re an addict,” Judge Gary S. Silow addressed Tara Marzucco, who pleaded guilty to a felony charge of obtaining controlled substances by fraud or subterfuge from the ambulance company.
With the charge, prosecutors alleged Marzucco, while employed as a paramedic with Second Alarmers Association and Rescue Squad in Abington, extracted morphine and liquid fentanyl from syringes for her personal use and then replaced the missing narcotics with saline. Marzucco then altered medication logs to try to cover her tracks, prosecutors alleged.
“The fact of the matter is clearly you put a lot of people at risk with your conduct. But that lack of insight was the result of your addiction. It doesn’t excuse anything, but it does explain certain things,” Silow added.
Marzucco, 34, of the 700 block of Roger Road, Warminster, was sentenced on Tuesday to 24 months in the county’s Intermediate Punishment program, the first 12 months of which must be served under house arrest. That means Marzucco will have to wear an electronic ankle bracelet and probation officials will monitor her whereabouts. Marzucco will be permitted to leave her home only for court-approved purposes.
The remaining 12 months of the sentence will be spent under intensive probation.
Silow also ordered Marzucco to complete an additional five years of probation, following parole, and to complete 100 hours of community service. The sentence means Marzucco will be under court supervision for a total of seven years.
The judge added Marzucco, a mother of two, will be placed under addict supervision by probation officials.
“The reason I’m doing this is you need not destroy your children’s lives any further,” Silow told Marzucco, explaining his reasons for not ordering jail time. “But if you violate, I’ll send you away, you’re gone.”
State sentencing guidelines allowed for probation or up to several months in jail for the offense.
Assistant District Attorney Robert Kolansky sought jail time against Marzucco, arguing she put patients at risk of not receiving the proper pain medication dosages with the elaborate scheme.
“It certainly takes some time and some thought and it takes some thought to cover her tracks as well,” said Kolansky.
There was no evidence that Marzucco’s conduct harmed anyone treated by Marzucco or Second Alarmers, Kolansky said.
“But there’s a big element of public trust and she greatly breached it. These Second Alarmers and paramedics in general are entrusted to go out and give the appropriate treatment and they’re taking care of people at their absolute worst moments in hideous and terrible situations so to know that somebody was out there under the influence herself or putting others at risk of giving these altered drugs was pretty significant,” Kolansky said.
Defense lawyer Vincent DiFabio argued for leniency on behalf of Marzucco, adding she has obtained counseling for her addiction.
“She was a stellar paramedic with numerous commendations, saved a lot of lives, delivered a baby, so her background was stellar. It was a job that she was good at and which she loved and she will never be able to go back to it,” said DiFabio, explaining Marzucco’s addiction began after she suffered a neck injury several years ago and she was prescribed Percocet by doctors.
“When you looked at her background, you looked at the reason for the addiction and what she did and you take all that into consideration with the sentencing code and the factors for probation, I think probation was really warranted,” said DiFabio, adding Marzucco is remorseful and regrets her conduct. “She feels very bad for any way she would have damaged the reputation of Second Alarmers because she did love working there.”
The investigation began in April 2015 when officials of Second Alarmers discovered that tamper seals for more than a dozen syringes, containing morphine or fentanyl, had been broken or damaged, according to a criminal complaint.
Marzucco subsequently told Abington detectives that she broke the seals on the syringes to that she could remove the medications.
“The medications were removed using another syringe. In some instances she said that she removed all the narcotics, in other instances she partially removed the narcotics,” Abington Detective Philip Geliebter wrote in the arrest affidavit. “Marzucco said that she would then replace the missing narcotics with sterile saline.”
Marzucco told detectives she used the stolen narcotics for her own use, administering the fentanyl through her nose and administering the morphine directly into muscle. Marzucco admitted using the narcotics one or twice a week.
“Marzucco said that the use of the narcotics was the result of a neck injury she sustained approximately seven years ago. She had been using Percocet but she said that as her tolerance increased the prescription was no longer enough,” Geliebter wrote.