The owner of a Des Moines hospital has decided to settle dozens of lawsuits filed by patients who say they suffered needless pain after a hospital worker stole their painkillers. Authorities say V. Van Cleave had worked at Iowa Methodist Medical Center when he used a syringe to steal fentanyl and other painkillers, replacing the [...]
A former doctor pleaded guilty Thursday to federal charges of prescribing the powerful painkiller oxycodone to undercover operatives in exchange for cash at his Victorville clinic, authorities said. Wendell Mark Street, 67, of Las Vegas, pleaded guilty to two counts of prescribing oxycodone without a legitimate medical purpose, U.S. Department of Justice spokesman Ciaran McEvoy [...]
COLUMBIA - A former employee at Women's and Children's Hospital pleaded guilty Monday to stealing pain medications. Jillian Worley is scheduled to be sentenced in September. Prosecutors charged her in December 2017 after investigators said she took medications from a dispensing machine at the hospital. Those medications weren't ordered by any doctors or given to [...]
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) - A nurse anesthetist has pleaded guilty to tampering with opioid painkillers in northern Iowa. Records for the U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids say Christopher West also pleaded guilty to obtaining a controlled substance by deception. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports that West had been accused of ordering extra painkillers [...]
A registered pharmacy technician at an Altamonte Springs Publix gave up her license Friday after, the Florida Department of Health says, she got caught stealing drugs from the pharmacy. And the emergency suspension order (ESO) said that while Publix caught Kara Blankenship in June, she admitted she’s been stealing pills from Publix pharmacies for eight [...]
A Plymouth Township psychiatrist accused of operating a “pill mill” now faces federal charges, prosecutors said Friday. S. Kassis, 66, was charged with 14 counts of distributing “dangerous and addictive opioids" that were medically unnecessary, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney William McSwain. Kassis sold the prescriptions at $200 each to people who would [...]
A pharmacist from Desoto County was charged after authorities say he stole drugs from work. The Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics said J. Vaughn turned himself in to the Desoto County Sheriff’s Department on Tuesday, July 30, after a warrant was issued for his arrest. He was accused of stealing 250 does of Suboxone, a drug [...]
A nurse at Grand Strand Medical Center was booked into jail Wednesday morning after allegedly stealing drugs from the hospital. Online records from the J. Reuben Long Detention Center state 29-year-old S. Gibson was charged with two counts of theft of controlled substances and one count of violation of the drug distribution law. He was [...]
A Washington D.C.-based traveling doctor, previously affiliated with Penn Highlands DuBois, has been charged by the state Attorney General’s office with writing fraudulent prescriptions for stimulant medications for himself, according to a criminal complaint filed at District Judge Patrick Ford’s office in DuBois. On July 22, Dr. J. O’Shea, 68, a general surgeon, was charged [...]
Two former Minot nurses accused of stealing prescribed drugs for hospice patients have each been sentenced to three years in prison. The Minot Daily News reports that 40-year-old April Beckler and 47-year-old Kim Kochel were sentenced on Friday. They pleaded guilty in May to endangering a vulnerable adult and criminal conspiracy. Prosecutors say Kochel and Beckler [...]