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SCRANTON — A former registered nurse at the Wilkes-Barre VA Medical Center was sentenced by a federal judge Wednesday to three years probation after admitting she stole morphine from the hospital’s hospice unit and occasionally used it while on the job.

Janice Monique Matrician, 50, of Tamaqua, entered a guilty plea and was immediately sentenced at a hearing before U.S. District Judge Richard P. Conaboy at the William J. Nealon Federal Building in Scranton. She was charged in October with a felony count of obtaining morphine by misrepresentation, fraud, forgery, deception and subterfuge.

Asked by Conaboy why she was entering the plea, Matrician told the judge she was owning up to her crime.

“I’ve done wrong,” she said.

At times, Matrician broke down as she explained that she was 10 years sober before she began stealing morphine that was leftover from veterans’ doses in order to treat her struggle with depression.

“I know that what I did was terribly, terribly wrong,” she said. “I’m a good person with a bad disease.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Hinkley said the Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General in 2015 began investigating claims from other staff members that morphine was missing from the hospice unit. He said Matrician admitted she provided the required doses to patients but kept leftovers for her personal use — sometimes while on the job — despite entering into a hospital computer system she had disposed of them.

“Whatever was left should have been thrown away,” Hinkley said.

It was unclear whether the morphine Matrician stole should have gone to patients, he added, but evidence suggested it was possible.

“The veterans got all their doses,” Matrician said. “I got the waste.”

Matrician has since sought help, she said. She attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings five times per week in addition to going to a women’s support group and Bible study, she said. She also cares for a young granddaughter whose mother is battling an addiction of her own.

“My youngest daughter was a heroin addict, so I took in her 9-month-old daughter,” she said.

Federal Public Defender Ingrid S. Cronin asked the judge to consider a sentence that would allow Matrician to continue seeking treatment while providing care to her family and trying to obtain a job. Cronin noted Matrician has found it difficult to pursue employment due to of the uncertainty of her sentence and status of her nursing license.

Matrician told Conaboy she “didn’t have the guts” to check whether the license was suspended.

A state records check shows the license, issued in 2008, remains active with no disciplinary actions, though Matrician indicated she faces a 10-year suspension.

“She knows she violated the trust of the VA, who gave her a good job,” Cronin said. “She will now have to find another way to earn a living.”

Conaboy ordered Matrician to continue seeking treatment and attending support groups. She must also submit to random drug tests, he ordered.