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 10 of 730 cases.
| Case / When | Where | Setting | Drug | Method | Role | Prosecution status | Penalty | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Contract Nurse Anesthetist Sentenced for Burglarizing Pain Clinic's Controlled Substances
2026-07-20
|
Kentucky Louisville, Kentucky |
Contract CRNA, pain treatment center (Louisville, KY) treating intrathecal-pump patients | Controlled substances used to refill patients' implanted pain pumps | Caught by police burglarizing the clinic and removing controlled substances meant for patients' pre-filled pump syringes | not stated | Sentenced Jul 20, 2026 to 6 years 5 months + $15,000 fine + 3 years supervised release; forfeited Kentucky nursing licenses | $15,000 (criminal fine) | source |
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Pharmacist and Spouse Sentenced for Diverting Opioids From Kentucky Pharmacy
2025-05-05
|
Kentucky Franklin, Kentucky |
Pharmacist-owner and spouse, retail pharmacy, Franklin, KY, May 2020-Jan. 2023 | Oxycodone and hydrocodone | Diverted opioids from pharmacy stock for resale/trade; fraudulently billed Medicaid and insurers; falsely reported a robbery to the DEA to explain missing inventory | not stated | Convicted on conspiracy, theft-of-medical-products, unlawful distribution, and health care fraud counts; pharmacist sentenced to 3 years prison plus $17,518.19 restitution, spouse to 2 years plus $5,730.43 restitution | $17,518 (restitution) | source |
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Contract Nurse Sentenced for Tampering With Morphine at Kentucky Elder-Care Facility
2025-03-25
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Kentucky Lawrenceburg, Kentucky |
Contract registered nurse, elder/infirm-care health facility, Lawrenceburg, KY (Jan.-Aug. 2023) | Morphine | Stole morphine prescribed for three patients, replaced it with water and blue food coloring, and administered the tampered substance to at least one patient | not stated | Pleaded guilty to tampering with a consumer product; sentenced March 25, 2025 to 60 months in federal prison plus 3 years supervised release | none documented | source |
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Kentucky Nurse Sentenced Over Elder-Care Morphine Substitution
2025-03-24
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Kentucky Lawrenceburg, Kentucky |
Heritage Hall Rehab & Wellness Center, Anderson County (Lawrenceburg), KY | Morphine | On August 27, 2023, took morphine prescribed for three patients with significant disease and pain concerns and replaced it with water and blue food coloring made to resemble the real medication; took at least seven syringes of stolen morphine and administered the tampered substitute to at least one patient | not stated | Sentenced March 24, 2025, to 60 months in federal prison for tampering with a consumer product, plus three years of supervised release | none documented | source |
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Jackson, Kentucky Clinic Physician Pays $450,000 Over Invalid Prescriptions and Lab Kickbacks
2024-09-27
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Kentucky Jackson, Kentucky |
St. John Neumann's Extended Hours Clinic, a private medical practice in Jackson, Kentucky | Schedule II controlled substances issued via pre-signed prescription pads | Physician pre-signed 94 blank controlled-substance prescriptions so unauthorized staff could complete and issue them to patients he had not evaluated, including while he was out of the country | not stated | Physician and office manager paid $450,000 civil settlement, September 2024; physician agreed to a 15-year exclusion from federal health programs and surrendered his DEA registration | $450,000 (civil settlement) | source |
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Barbourville Pharmacy Pays $215,000 Over Red-Flag Prescription Failures
2024-05-09
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Kentucky Barbourville, Kentucky |
Smith Family Pharmacy, a retail pharmacy in Barbourville, Kentucky | Oxycodone and oxymorphone | Pharmacy filled over 500 prescriptions bearing red flags for diversion or abuse — dangerous drug combinations, high dosages, and out-of-state prescribers — without resolving the concerns | not stated | Pharmacy and pharmacist-in-charge paid $215,000 civil penalty and signed a four-year DEA Memorandum of Agreement, May 2024 | $215,000 (civil penalty) | source |
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Eastern Kentucky physician and clinic nurse sentenced for conspiracy to issue illegitimate opioid prescriptions
2024-03
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Kentucky | Medical clinics in the Pikeville, Kentucky area | Oxycodone, methadone, hydrocodone, alprazolam, clonazepam | not stated | Licensed physician (D.O.) and clinic nurse | not stated | none documented | source |
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Kentucky hospital agrees to $4.4 million civil penalty over recordkeeping that allowed pharmacy technician to divert 60,000 opioid doses
2022-12-08
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Kentucky | Pikeville Medical Center narcotics vault and automated dispensing cabinets | Oxycodone, hydrocodone, methadone (more than 60,000 doses) | not stated | Hospital pharmacy technician | not stated | none documented | source |
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Kentucky hospital pharmacy technician diverted over 60,000 opioid doses; hospital paid civil penalty
2022-12
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Kentucky | Hospital system narcotics vault and automated dispensing cabinets, Pikeville, Kentucky | Oxycodone, hydrocodone and methadone (more than 60,000 doses) | not stated | Hospital pharmacy technician | not stated | none documented | source |
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Magoffin County Nurse Sentenced for Tampering with Hospital Medication
2019-10-30
|
Kentucky Salyersville, Kentucky |
Paul B. Hall Regional Medical Center (Salyersville/Magoffin County, KY) | Butorphanol tartrate (Stadol) | Removed vials from drug supply area, refilled with saline | not stated | Pleaded guilty; sentenced Oct 30, 2019 to 24 months | none documented | source |
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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.