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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Registered nurse accused of diverting morphine from OrthoNebraska surgical unit
2026-08
|
Nebraska Omaha, NE |
OrthoNebraska | morphine (4 mg vials) | Alleged entering fictitious orders in patient charts to divert morphine for himself; admitted diverting morphine by adding or changing the ordered amount, charting the difference, or charting medical 'waste'; accessed automated medication dispensing machine, sometimes using co-workers' login information. | not stated | Booked on seven felony counts of intentionally violating a narcotic drug law; placed on leave then later fired; scheduled court appearance. Nebraska nursing license was listed as active until Oct. 31, 2026, as of the report, with no disciplinary information shown. | none documented | source |
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Hospice owner accused of reusing deceased patients' narcotics and moving medications between cities
2026-07
|
Nebraska Omaha, NE |
Endless Journey Hospice, Omaha, NE | narcotics | charged with misappropriation of medications, improper handling and dispensing of controlled substances, transporting medications of deceased Lincoln patients to Omaha, allowing unlicensed staff to sign patient records, failing to report misdemeanor convictions and misrepresenting those convictions on license renewal applications. Narcotics belonging to deceased patients were stored in an unlocked cabinet and reused for other patients without proper prescriptions; employees were instructed to document them as "destroyed." | not stated | 90-day nursing license suspension, ethics training, and a $10,000.00 civil penalty under an agreed settlement approved by the Chief Medical Officer of DHHS | none documented | source |
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Hospice executive director accused of keeping unlocked cabinet of deceased patients' narcotics
2026-07
|
Nebraska Omaha, NE |
Endless Journey Hospice, Omaha, NE | narcotics | accused of keeping an unlocked cabinet of narcotics belonging to deceased patients in her office, directing employees to return unused medications, misappropriation of medications, falsification or inadequate maintenance of patient records, practicing beyond the authorized scope, aiding unlicensed practice, and signing patient records as a physician, social worker and volunteer coordinator. Licensed practical nurse; former executive director of the hospice. | not stated | 90-day nursing license suspension, ethics training, and a $10,000.00 civil penalty under an agreed settlement approved by the Chief Medical Officer of DHHS | none documented | source |
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Nebraska Nurse Charged Over Surgery Center Propofol and Fentanyl Theft
2025-04
|
Nebraska North Platte, Nebraska |
North Platte Surgery Center, North Platte, NE | Propofol and fentanyl | Between March and April 2023, took propofol and fentanyl from the surgery center's stock for personal use; admitted the theft to his employer in April 2023 and was fired after an investigation found vials missing from inventory | not stated | Charged in U.S. District Court with acquiring a controlled substance by fraud, reported April 2025; faces up to 4 years in prison if convicted | none documented | source |
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Nebraska Practical Nurse License Revoked Over Narcotic Count Discrepancies
2023-08-30
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Nebraska Nebraska |
not stated | Narcotic pain medications; facility not named in the board record | At one care facility in May 2023, failed to complete required medication counts and narcotic medications were later found missing, and failed to account for a controlled substance that was signed out but refused by the patient; at a second facility in June 2023, documented administering narcotic pain medications to patients who later denied receiving them and signed out narcotics at a greater frequency than ordered | not stated | Nebraska Board of Nursing revoked her ability to practice in the state on August 30, 2023 | none documented | source |
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Hospital nurse accused of diverting fentanyl from CHI Health St. Elizabeth
2023-04
|
Nebraska Lincoln, NE |
CHI Health St. Elizabeth | fentanyl | Allegedly took fentanyl from the hospital and improperly accounted for fentanyl waste in medical records; an audit found fentanyl checkouts with discrepancies in May and June 2022; a urine test was positive for fentanyl according to court documents. | not stated | Charged with acquiring a controlled substance by fraud; arrest warrant issued; not yet arrested; resigned from the position. | none documented | source |
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Emergency room nurse sentenced to probation for diverting fentanyl from a Lincoln hospital pharmacy
2022-06
|
Nebraska Lincoln, NE |
CHI Health St. Elizabeth | fentanyl | Checked out fentanyl from the hospital pharmacy more than 200 times between May and June 2022; 55 discrepancies were found; 2.65 mg of fentanyl was unaccounted for; in some cases checked out fentanyl without a doctor's order and in others reported administering it within five minutes of patient discharge; denied stealing or using the drug but urine tested positive for fentanyl. | not stated | Pleaded guilty to acquiring a controlled substance by fraud; sentenced to three years of probation; gave up nursing license. | none documented | source |
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Nebraska City Nurse Diverted Thousands of Opioid Tablets from an Assisted-Living Facility
2021-10-20
|
Nebraska Nebraska City, NE |
Assisted-living facility, Nebraska City, NE | Hydrocodone, tramadol, and oxycodone | Repeatedly ordered opioid refills for residents that were never logged as administered; audit found over 6,000 tablets missing across 23 residents | not stated | Sentenced Oct 20, 2021, to three years of probation and a $5,000 fine | 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.