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 15 of 730 cases.
| Case / When | Where | Setting | Drug | Method | Role | Prosecution status | Penalty | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Former VA Medical Center Nurse Indicted for Stealing Hydromorphone
2026-08-21
|
Minnesota Minneapolis, Minnesota |
VA Medical Center (Minneapolis, MN) | Hydromorphone (opioid) | Fraudulent obtaining over ~13 months; charged under 21 U.S.C. § 843(a)(3) | not stated | Indicted Aug 21, 2026; presumed innocent | none documented | source |
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Dodge County Hospital Nurse Diverted Oxycodone Using Automated Dispensing Cabinet Swap
2024-05-24
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Minnesota Dodge County, Minnesota |
Post-anesthesia care unit, hospital in Dodge County, Minnesota | Oxycodone (diverted alongside oxybutynin used as cover) | Withdrew two-pill oxycodone orders from an automated dispensing cabinet but gave patients only one, falsifying pain reports; also opened an oxybutynin drawer to mask additional oxycodone withdrawals | not stated | Pleaded guilty May 2024 to obtaining a controlled substance by fraud; sentencing pending | none documented | source |
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Minnesota Pharmacist in Charge Pleads Guilty to Stealing Oxycodone Bottles From Inventory
2024-04-25
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Minnesota Maplewood, Minnesota |
Pharmacist in charge, retail pharmacy (Maplewood, MN); conduct Mar 2020 – Jun 2023 | Oxycodone (bottles taken from pharmacy inventory) | Removed oxycodone bottles from the pharmacy's own stock for personal use and falsified the pharmacy's records to conceal the missing inventory | not stated | Pleaded guilty Apr 25, 2024, to one count of obtaining a controlled substance by misrepresentation; sentencing to be scheduled | none documented | source |
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Minnesota home hospice nurse diverted controlled substances from 24 patients
2023-06-29
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Minnesota | Home hospice agency (patients receiving hospice care in their own homes) | Controlled substance medications (specific drugs not identified in the available excerpt) | not stated | Hospice registered nurse | not stated | none documented | source |
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Minnesota pharmacist caught on video pocketing amphetamines; suspension stayed with monitoring
2021-05
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Minnesota | Pharmacy (employer not named in order) | Amphetamines (Schedule II controlled substances) | not stated | Pharmacist | not stated | none documented | source |
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Minnesota pharmacy technician took oxycodone from filled patient prescriptions; registration surrendered
2021-05
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Minnesota | Retail pharmacy will-call area | Oxycodone tablets | not stated | Pharmacy technician | not stated | none documented | source |
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Minnesota pharmacy technician shorted patient prescriptions of oxycodone-acetaminophen; registration revoked
2020-10
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Minnesota | Pharmacy | Oxycodone-acetaminophen 5/325 mg tablets | not stated | Pharmacy technician | not stated | none documented | source |
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Minnesota pharmacist-in-charge reprimanded after technician diverted over 18,000 doses of controlled substances
2020-09
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Minnesota | Pharmacy | Twenty-five different controlled substances plus gabapentin | not stated | Pharmacist-in-charge (supervising pharmacist) | not stated | none documented | source |
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Minnesota pharmacy chain pays $225,000 to resolve Controlled Substances Act claims after pharmacist-in-charge diverted opioids
2019-06-11
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Minnesota | Retail pharmacy chain in Minnesota | Schedule II opioids including oxycodone and hydrocodone | not stated | Pharmacist-in-charge of a retail store (employee); employer pharmacy chain settled civil claims | not stated | none documented | source |
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Minnesota pharmacist diverted hydrocodone, zolpidem and tramadol for years and altered records; license suspended indefinitely
2017-02
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Minnesota | Multiple pharmacies where the licensee practiced | Hydrocodone/acetaminophen, zolpidem, tramadol | not stated | Pharmacist | not stated | none documented | source |
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Minnesota Paramedic Stole Ambulance Morphine, Replaced It with Saline
2015-07-16
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Minnesota Minneapolis, Minnesota |
Allina Health ambulance service (Minneapolis, MN) | Morphine and hydromorphone — ambulance patient supply | Withdrew drug with syringe from ambulance stock, refilled vials with saline | not stated | Pleaded guilty; sentenced Jul 16, 2015 to 3 years probation | none documented | source |
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Pharmacist Pleads Guilty to Stealing 67,000 Doses of Prescription Narcotics — Minnesota, 2014
2014-10-28
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Minnesota Burnsville, Minnesota |
Retail pharmacy in Burnsville, MN | Hydrocodone, oxycodone, carisoprodol, and diazepam | Falsified controlled-substance receiving logs to understate shipments, then stole the discrepancy | not stated | Pleaded guilty to obtaining a controlled substance by fraud | none documented | source |
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Hospital Nurse Sentenced for Diverting Dilaudid, Causing Patient Infections — Minnesota, 2013
2013-03-20
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Minnesota St. Cloud, Minnesota |
Hospital in St. Cloud, MN (unnamed in DOJ release) | Hydromorphone (Dilaudid) | Withdrew Dilaudid from patients' IV bags via hospital lockboxes, reinjected saline to mask the theft | not stated | Pleaded guilty; sentenced to 24 months federal prison | $340,000 (restitution) | source |
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Nurse Sentenced for Diverting Hydromorphone via Drug Cabinet Login Credentials — Minnesota, 2012
2012-01-20
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Minnesota Minnesota |
Unnamed Minnesota hospital (automated dispensing cabinet access) | Hydromorphone | Used personal login credentials to withdraw the drug from automated dispensing cabinets | not stated | Pleaded guilty; sentenced to 3 years probation | none documented | source |
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Hospital Nurse Sentenced for Siphoning Dilaudid from Patients' IV Bags — Minnesota, 2011
2011-06-29
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Minnesota Coon Rapids, Minnesota |
Mercy Hospital, Coon Rapids, MN | Hydromorphone (Dilaudid) | Used a syringe to withdraw Dilaudid from patients' IV bags | not stated | Pleaded guilty; sentenced to 3 years probation | 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.