Case Database
Filter every documented case by date, drug, state, setting, role, prosecution status, and penalty. Search accepts brand or generic drug names, facility names, and cities.
Showing 8 of 730 cases.
| Case / When | Where | Setting | Drug | Method | Role | Prosecution status | Penalty | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Hawaii nurse alleged to have swapped a patient's Adderall tablets for Seroquel
2024-09-09
|
Hawaii | Treatment center employer operating as Nova Luna Center and ʻAi Pono Hawaii | Adderall (four tablets allegedly taken from a patient's pill packet and replaced with four Seroquel tablets) | not stated | Licensed nurse (charged under Hawaii nursing statute HRS 457 and nursing rules HAR 16-89) | not stated | none documented | source |
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Maui nurse sanctioned after alleged diversion of Adderall from patient medication packet
2024-08
|
Hawaii | Nova Luna Inc., dba Nova Luna Center and 'Ai Pono Hawaii | Adderall and Seroquel | Allegedly diverted four Adderall tablets from a patient's medication pill packet, replaced them with four Seroquel tablets, and had no authorization to possess, obtain, furnish, or administer the Adderall herself. | not stated | Board of Nursing sanctioned the nurse with a $5,000 fine on Aug. 1, 2024, in a board-approved settlement agreement. | none documented | source |
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Hilo Hospital Nurse Charged With Stealing Fentanyl
2022-09-23
|
Hawaii Hilo, Hawaii |
Hilo Medical Center, Hawaii | Fentanyl | not stated | Former registered nurse | Charged Sept. 23, 2022; pleaded not guilty; released on $55,000 bail. Appeared in Hilo's 3rd Circuit Court; a bench warrant was issued with bail set at $55,000, later posted as cash bail; next appearance was scheduled for Dec. 5, 2022. | none documented | source |
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Hilo Medical Center nurse charged with fentanyl theft and drug possession
2022-04
|
Hawaii Hilo, HI |
Hilo Medical Center | fentanyl | Charged with prescription drug theft and felony drug possession in relation to two April 2022 incidents at the hospital; the charges allege two counts of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud, deceit, misrepresentation, embezzlement or theft, third-degree promoting a dangerous drug (possessed fentanyl, in any amount), and second-degree promoting a dangerous drug (possessed one-fourth ounce or more of fentanyl). | not stated | Charged with four felony offenses; made an initial appearance in Hilo Circuit Court, where a request for supervised release or bail reduction was denied and bail was maintained at $55,000; later posted $55,000 cash bail and was released from custody. Next court appearance set for December 5, 2022. | none documented | source |
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Maui physician charged with unlawful distribution of hydrocodone after undercover visits
2020-10-08
|
Hawaii | Private medical practice in Kahului, Maui, with a second office in Hilo | Hydrocodone (schedule II opioid) | not stated | Physician (medical doctor) | not stated | none documented | source |
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Hilo clinic physician and employees accused of unlawfully distributing opioids
2019-02
|
Hawaii Hilo, HI |
a medical clinic in Hilo | hydrocodone, oxycodone, fentanyl and morphine | accused of prescribing and unlawfully distributing powerful narcotics, sedatives and opioids such as hydrocodone, oxycodone, fentanyl and morphine | not stated | arrested; scheduled to stand trial in U.S. District Court in June | none documented | source |
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Army hospital pharmacy technician admitted stealing and distributing hydrocodone and oxycodone
2019-02
|
Hawaii Oahu, Hawaii |
Tripler Army Medical Center | hydrocodone or oxycodone | charged with and later admitted stealing and distributing 8,505 pills containing five milligrams of either hydrocodone or oxycodone from the hospital's pharmacy vault | not stated | charged; later admitted; serving a one-year sentence in a federal correctional institution in California | none documented | source |
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Hospital pharmacy technician diverted hydrocodone and oxycodone from a pharmacy vault through fraudulent automated dispensing transactions
2018-10
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Hawaii | Tripler Army Medical Center | hydrocodone and oxycodone (Schedule II controlled substances) | Stole 8,505 pills, each containing 5 milligrams of either hydrocodone or oxycodone, from the hospital's pharmacy vault between February 2017 and March 2018, using her authorized fingerprint and unique login to conduct 82 fraudulent transactions in the hospital's new automated medication distribution and tracking system, which she found did not require a valid prescription to dispense medication to patients being discharged; gave the pills to her boyfriend for his personal use and used some herself. | not stated | Sentenced to 12 months in jail plus six years of court supervision; pleaded guilty in June to one count each of possessing with intent to distribute hydrocodone and oxycodone; had repaid $1,033 to the hospital before sentencing. | none documented | source |
Every filtered view has its own URL, so it can be linked or bookmarked. The same filters work on the JSON feed: /api/cases.json.
What each column does and doesn't cover
Every case states When (date) and Where (state) — 730 of 730. Beyond that, a blank cell means the source record does not state that fact, not that it did not happen:
- Setting: stated in 649 of 730 cases (89%)
- Drug: stated in 657 of 730 cases (90%)
- Method: stated in 474 of 730 cases (65%)
- Prosecution status: stated in 474 of 730 cases (65%); a documented penalty (fine, settlement, or restitution) exists for 77 of 730 cases (11%)
- Role: stated in only 255 of 730 cases (35%) — filtering or sorting by role silently hides the rest of the registry, which may still describe the same role in prose without a structured field
Why: documented failure modes
A separate text analysis of the 723 case summaries found 371 cases (51.3%) matching at least one named failure-mode pattern below. 352 cases (48.7% of 723) matched none of these categories - most of these are short board-order summaries ("licensee diverted controlled substances from their employer") that state an outcome without describing a mechanism, not cases where no failure occurred. A case can match zero, one, or several categories — these are corpus-level counts, not a per-case tag, and are not used as a row filter above: reproducing the exact category membership per case from the stored patterns did not exactly match this file's hand-curated counts on independent re-check, so no individual case here is labeled with a "why" that this code cannot verify.
Text names an act of replacing/refilling the drug with a named substitute (saline, water, an OTC pill, a cleaning product, etc.), OR uses swap/dilute/tamper to describe the same act, so the altered container went back into use looking unchanged.
Text uses stole/stealing/embezzled to describe removal of controlled substances.
Text uses a form of "falsif-" within 60 characters of a record-type noun (chart, inventory, transaction, receipt, prescription, etc.).
Text explicitly characterizes the prescription(s) as fraudulent, forged, invalid, or issued outside legitimate medical practice (including "pill mill" language).
Text names an automated dispensing cabinet/machine, or the acronym ADC, as part of the mechanism.
Text describes recording or claiming drug as "waste" (when it was not), pulling drug from a waste stream, or wastage that was not independently witnessed.
Text describes cancelling, voiding, or falsely entering a system transaction (an order, a return-to-stock entry, a cancel entry) specifically to conceal a removal.
Text states the FACILITY (not an individual concealing personal use) failed to maintain required inventory/records, or names a recordkeeping violation/negligent recordkeeping as the basis for the government action.
Text describes using a fictitious patient profile, a false name/identity, stolen patient information, or impersonating a licensed prescriber to obtain the drug.
Text states a failure to notify or report a loss, theft, or suspected diversion to a regulator.
Disclaimer
Case summaries are based on public records (DOJ press releases, court documents, news reports). Charges are allegations unless a conviction is noted. Analysis is educational, not legal advice.
Last reviewed: September 2026 · Content is educational, not legal advice.