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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Kansas City Fire Department paramedic charged with stealing drugs from ambulances appeared in court Tuesday, pleading not guilty.
A federal grand jury indicted 36-year-old Michael Fostich last week on charges of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud and tampering with a consumer product. The indictment alleges Fostich stole fentanyl and morphine from ambulances and replaced the fentanyl with another substance.
Read the full indictment here.
If found guilty, he could spend up to 14 years in prison.
While walking out of the federal courthouse Tuesday, Fostich and his attorney would not answer questions about what happened in 2016 when Fostich was a KCMO firefighter and paramedic.
The indictment accuses Fostich of stealing 806 doses of fentanyl, which is 39 percent of the total amount used by the department in 2016, as well as 636 doses of morphine, which is 63 percent of all KCFD’s reported use of morphene that year.
“We will do our speaking in the court,” Fostich’s attorney said. “You are not going to speak to my client.”
Fostich is also charged with replacing fentanyl with another substance, which sources say was saline, and putting the vials, which could have been used on patients, back in the ambulance.