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 9 of 730 cases.
| Case / When | Where | Setting | Drug | Method | Role | Prosecution status | Penalty | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Utah nurse charged after police found thousands of prescription pills in home safe
2026-06
|
Utah | Private residence in Herriman, Utah | Oxycodone and other prescription medications | not stated | Registered nurse; reportedly employed by a home care and hospice company | not stated | none documented | source |
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Rehabilitation center nurse accused of stealing patients' painkillers and drug logs
2026-03
|
Utah Sandy, UT |
a rehabilitation center in Sandy, Utah | Oxycodone, Methadone, Tramadol and Gabapentin | Alleged to have stolen medications and drug logs from patients at the rehabilitation center where the nurse worked; police stated the nurse admitted to taking medications over the previous two months, allegedly taking drugs from patients who had multiple packs knowing they would not notice they were missing. | not stated | Arrested and booked into the Salt Lake County Jail; charged with one felony count of pattern of unlawful activity and several misdemeanors including theft and intentional abuse or neglect of a vulnerable adult. | none documented | source |
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VA pharmacy supervisor suspected of stealing painkillers and testosterone over five years
2023-10
|
Utah Salt Lake City, UT |
George Wahlen Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center, VA Salt Lake City Health Care System | painkillers and testosterone | suspected of stealing more than 24,000 painkillers and 25 vials of testosterone over five years | not stated | Suspected; no disposition stated | none documented | source |
|
Intermountain Healthcare Nurse Tampered with Hydromorphone Syringes
2021-07-23
|
Utah Salt Lake City, Utah |
Hospital surgical/trauma ward (Intermountain Healthcare), Utah | Hydromorphone | Diverted hydromorphone from pre-loaded syringes, replaced it with saline, and returned the syringes for use on other patients | not stated | Convicted by federal jury on 3 counts; sentencing pending | none documented | source |
|
Hospital nurse convicted of diverting hydromorphone from pre-loaded syringes and replacing it with saline
2021-07
|
Utah Sandy, UT |
Intermountain Healthcare surgical and trauma ward | hydromorphone | Diverted hydromorphone from pre-loaded syringes for personal use, replaced the pain medication with saline solution, returned the syringes containing greatly reduced amounts of hydromorphone for medical use by other hospital staff, and made false statements to an FDA special agent during the investigation. | not stated | Convicted by a federal jury of three counts related to fraudulently obtaining and tampering with hydromorphone, and also convicted of making false statements to an FDA special agent. | none documented | source |
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Utah County sheriff's evidence technician charged with taking drugs slated for destruction
2019-05
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Utah | Utah County Sheriff's Office evidence handling | Hydrocodone or OxyContin | not stated | Former forensic technician | not stated | none documented | source |
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Utah health system paid $1 million to resolve clinic drug diversion allegations
2017-12-08
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Utah | Ogden-area clinic and pharmacy operated by a Utah health system | Oxycodone, diazepam, phentermine and hydrocodone | not stated | Former medical assistant to a clinic physician | not stated | none documented | source |
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Ogden hospital emergency room nurse charged with diverting morphine and dilaudid and tampering with vials, exposing patients to hepatitis C
2017-07
|
Utah Ogden, UT |
McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden and Davis Hospital and Medical Center in Layton | morphine and dilaudid | Alleged diversion of controlled substances by injecting herself with morphine and dilaudid and then administering the tampered drugs to patients | not stated | Indicted on eight counts of tampering with a consumer product and eight counts of fraudulently obtaining a controlled substance; surrendered nursing license in November 2015 | none documented | source |
|
University of Utah Medical Center nurse accused of diverting Percocet by substituting Tylenol
1990-06
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Utah | University of Utah Medical Center | Percocet; Tylenol; Tylenol and Motrin combinations | Allegedly signed out Percocet prescribed to patients who had already been discharged and had not requested the drug; on about 10 occasions allegedly gave plain Tylenol or Tylenol and Motrin combinations to women who had requested Percocet and kept the Percocet for her own use; allegedly began taking one to three pills a week away from work and later used Percocet at work. | not stated | Faces sanctions against her license; charged by the Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing with two counts of violating the state's Nurse Practice Act and Controlled Substance Act; had 30 days to respond, after which a hearing could be held or a settlement negotiated; voluntarily entered a drug dependency program earlier that year. | 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.