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 18 of 730 cases.
| Case / When | Where | Setting | Drug | Method | Role | Prosecution status | Penalty | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
VA medical center nurse pleads guilty to diverting and tampering with psychiatric patients' stimulant medications
2026-07
|
Vermont White River Junction, VT |
Veterans Affairs Medical Center, White River Junction | amphetamine/dextroamphetamine and methylphenidate (Schedule II), replaced with hydroxyzine | Diverted controlled substances prescribed to psychiatric ward patients for her own use over a roughly eight-month period, removing amphetamine/dextroamphetamine from capsules, separating them and administering the empty or nearly empty capsules to patients; replaced the tablets with hydroxyzine to conceal her consumption of the diverted drugs, and acquired stimulants by misrepresentation, fraud, deception and subterfuge. | not stated | Pleaded guilty in federal court to two counts of diverting drugs and tampering with medications; plea agreement stipulates forfeiture of her nursing license and sentencing is scheduled. | none documented | source |
|
VA hospital psychiatric nurse diverted amphetamine/dextroamphetamine and methylphenidate and tampered with patient medications
2026-06
|
Vermont White River Junction, VT |
Veterans Administration Medical Center in White River Junction | amphetamine/dextroamphetamine; methylphenidate; hydroxyzine | Diverted amphetamine/dextroamphetamine capsules from psychiatric patients, removed the regulated ingredients, and returned empty or nearly empty capsules to circulation; removed methylphenidate tablets and replaced them with hydroxyzine tablets for administration to patients; acquired amphetamine/dextroamphetamine and methylphenidate through fraud and deception. | not stated | Pleaded guilty to two felony counts; sentencing planned for Oct. 23; plea agreement capped the proposed sentence at 24 months, with a maximum penalty of 14 years and $500,000; agreed to forfeit a New Hampshire nursing license. | none documented | source |
|
Vermont hospital endoscopy unit nurse diverted fentanyl and sedatives intended for patients
2026-03-05
|
Vermont Barre, Vermont |
Licensed practical nurse, endoscopy unit, Central Vermont Medical Center (Barre, VT) | Fentanyl, meperidine, and midazolam | not stated | not stated | Charged with felony fraud or deceit involving a regulated drug; pleaded not guilty at March 5, 2026 arraignment | none documented | source |
|
Vermont revokes compact-licensed physician after Kentucky revocation tied to federal controlled-substance indictment
2024-11-06
|
Vermont | not stated | Controlled substances (unspecified) | not stated | Physician (Interstate Medical Licensure Compact licensee) | not stated | none documented | source |
|
Pharmacist charged with diverting hydrocodone/APAP tablets from a West Virginia pharmacy
2023-09
|
Vermont Stonewood, WV |
a pharmacy in Stonewood, West Virginia | hydrocodone/APAP 10/325 mg tablets | Charged with taking between 25 and 50 hydrocodone/APAP tablets per day from the pharmacy for 3 to 5 years without a prescription; allegedly diverted tablets while at the pharmacy filling legitimate prescriptions for himself and/or family by accessing non-public areas and removing bottles; the pharmacy reported losses of 7,000 hydrocodone/APAP 10/325 mg tablets to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, and the losses were attributed to the pharmacist. | not stated | Specification of Charges filed; requested relief includes revocation, suspension, reprimand, conditioning, or other discipline. | none documented | source |
|
CVS pharmacy manager diverted hydromorphone tablets and liquid solution for personal use; license revoked
2023-06
|
Vermont Berlin, VT |
a CVS Pharmacy in Berlin, Vermont | hydromorphone 8 mg tablets and liquid hydromorphone 1 mg/mL solution | Diverted controlled substances from the pharmacy for personal use from about March 2021 to September 2021; admitted diverting approximately 100 hydromorphone 8 mg tablets from a 100-count bottle over several months and an unknown amount of liquid hydromorphone 1 mg/mL solution. Documented the expected tablet count as in stock knowing the count was off because of the diversion, ordered liquid hydromorphone with no legitimate reason, and told investigators he replaced the diverted liquid volume with distilled water to make the bottle appear full; testing revealed diphenhydramine in the solution. | not stated | License revoked; the Board of Pharmacy found the pharmacist in default and treated the Specification of Charges as proven | none documented | source |
|
Vermont registered nurse's license conditioned after attempted diversion of medications from a facility medication cart
2023-02-27
|
Vermont | Health care facility (unnamed in order) | Medications (unspecified) | not stated | Registered nurse | not stated | none documented | source |
|
Vermont chain pharmacy manager diluted hydromorphone oral solution and falsified inventory records
2022-11
|
Vermont | Chain retail pharmacy in Berlin, Vermont | Hydromorphone (oral solution and tablets) | not stated | Pharmacy manager (licensed pharmacist) | not stated | none documented | source |
|
Skilled nursing facility registered nurse diverted Ativan tablets from PRN supply for personal use; Vermont license warned
2022-01
|
Vermont Gwynedd, PA |
Foulkeways at Gwynedd Skilled Nursing Facility | Ativan | Admitted to diverting Ativan tablets for personal use in 2015 or 2016 on more than one occasion by taking them from the PRN supply at the skilled nursing facility; the Board found this constituted diverting drugs for unauthorized use and failing to exercise independent professional judgment. | not stated | License warned; no other conditions or sanctions imposed. Board found Violations Two and Four proven; Violations One and Three not proven. | none documented | source |
|
Vermont dental practice employee conspired to forge oxycodone prescriptions
2021-12-20
|
Vermont | Dental practice in St. Albans, Vermont, and several area retail pharmacies | Oxycodone (controlled substances obtained via 46 fake prescriptions) | not stated | Dental practice employee | not stated | none documented | source |
|
Physician at Green Mountain Family Medicine diverted controlled substances by writing staff members' prescriptions for personal and family use
2019-05
|
Vermont Rutland and White River Junction, VT |
Green Mountain Family Medicine | Hydrocodone Bitartrate and Acetaminophen (Schedule II), Lorazepam (Schedule IV), Diazepam (Schedule IV), Tramadol (Schedule IV), Carisoprodol (Schedule IV) | The physician admitted to writing and receiving at least nine controlled-substance prescriptions in staff members' names for his own use from May 2013 through October 2015, writing at least four such prescriptions in staff members' names for an immediate family member's use, and altering staff medical records to include false information about the prescriptions. | not stated | The Board reprimanded the physician; suspended his Vermont medical license for five years with time served from June 21, 2016; permanently prohibited him from prescribing Schedule II-V controlled substances in Vermont; required practice monitoring, treatment, and a $9,000 administrative penalty. | none documented | source |
|
Burlington pharmacy technician accused of taking thousands of hydrocodone, zolpidem and buprenorphine tablets
2014-03-11
|
Vermont | Retail pharmacy, Burlington | Hydrocodone, zolpidem and Suboxone | not stated | Pharmacy technician | not stated | none documented | source |
|
Vermont supermarket pharmacist wrote and filled fraudulent hydrocodone prescriptions in two states
2014-03-11
|
Vermont | Supermarket pharmacy; prescriptions filled in Vermont and New York | Hydrocodone-acetaminophen (majority of prescriptions) | not stated | Pharmacist | not stated | none documented | source |
|
South Burlington physician pleaded guilty to prescription fraud after writing prescriptions under fictitious names
2012-11
|
Vermont | Primary care practice, South Burlington; retail pharmacies in Chittenden and Addison counties | Adderall and Vicodin | not stated | Physician | not stated | none documented | source |
|
Vermont psychiatric-facility nurse accused of diverting narcotics; consent order later contested through state supreme court
2011-04
|
Vermont | In-patient mental health facility, Brattleboro | Narcotic drugs (unspecified) | not stated | Registered nurse | not stated | none documented | source |
|
Rutland pharmacy technician's registration revoked after alleged theft and consumption of a narcotic cough syrup
2009-10-08
|
Vermont | Pharmacy, Rutland, Vermont | Tussionex (schedule III narcotic mixture) | not stated | Pharmacy technician | not stated | none documented | source |
|
Vermont-licensed nurse charged over diversion of opioids prescribed to a New Hampshire nursing home resident
2008-01-30
|
Vermont | Nursing center, Jaffrey, New Hampshire | Opioids prescribed to a resident | not stated | Nurse (Vermont licensee) | not stated | none documented | source |
|
Vermont hospital nurse admitted diverting patient drugs; civil suit tested confidentiality of board investigative files
1990-01
|
Vermont | Hospital (Windham County civil action) | Injectable drugs intended for a patient (unspecified) | not stated | Registered nurse | not stated | 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.