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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Appleton Nurse Practitioner Sentenced for Unlawful Opioid Prescribing Scheme
2025-12-18
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Wisconsin Appleton, Wisconsin |
not stated | Oxycodone and other opioids | Prescribed opioids to patients with no medical need in exchange for the patients filling the prescriptions and returning half or more of the pills to her for personal use | Advanced Practice Nurse Practitioner, Appleton, WI | Pleaded guilty Aug 13, 2025; sentenced Dec 18, 2025 to 16 months in federal prison plus 3 years supervised release | none documented | source |
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Hospital registered nurse's license revoked after fentanyl tampering and diversion
2023-12
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Wisconsin Janesville, WI |
a hospital in Janesville, Wisconsin | fentanyl | tampered with fentanyl vials in hospital automated dispensing cabinets, had excessive fentanyl overrides, unaccounted fentanyl, and recorded wasting large amounts of fentanyl; refused a reasonable suspicion drug screen and resigned | not stated | nursing license revoked; pleaded guilty in federal court to tampering with a consumer product involving injectable fentanyl; may not petition for reinstatement earlier than one year; ordered to pay costs | none documented | source |
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Agency nurse accused of diverting fentanyl at Watertown hospital; interim suspension
2023-10
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Wisconsin Watertown, WI |
a hospital located in Watertown, Wisconsin | fentanyl | Alleged diversion and use of fentanyl while working as an agency nurse assigned to a hospital located in Watertown, Wisconsin; the Board had not determined whether any statutes or rules were violated. | not stated | Interim order accepted; privilege to practice as a registered nurse in Wisconsin under the Nurse Licensure Compact suspended during the pendency of the disciplinary matter, effective 10/12/2023. | none documented | source |
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Janesville Hospital Nurse Sentenced for Tampering With Fentanyl Vials
2023-09-14
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Wisconsin Janesville, Wisconsin |
Hospital | Fentanyl | Withdrew fentanyl, substituted saline, resealed vial stoppers with glue, and returned tampered vials to the dispensing cabinet | not stated | Pleaded guilty; sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment and a $30,000 fine (Sept. 2023) | $30,000 (criminal fine) | source |
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Registered nurse diverted oxycodone, hydrocodone/acetaminophen, and hydromorphone from patients at a Madison medical center
2022-10
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Wisconsin Madison, WI |
a medical center in Madison, Wisconsin | oxycodone, hydrocodone/acetaminophen, morphine, hydromorphone, and tramadol | Admitted diverting pain medications from patients for personal use over about 1.5 years, totaling approximately 100 patients and 200 dosages; admitted diverting specific doses of oxycodone, hydrocodone/acetaminophen, and liquid hydromorphone on June 12 and 13, 2021; charted that a patient had already received pain medication when the patient asked for it; and pled guilty to acquiring hydrocodone/acetaminophen, oxycodone, and hydromorphone by misrepresentation/fraud/deception by entering patient information into the automated dispensing cabinet and removing controlled substances for personal use. | not stated | Voluntary surrender of nursing license accepted; ordered to pay $904 in costs; cannot petition for reinstatement for at least one year; federal sentence of three years probation and a $3,500 fine. | none documented | source |
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Hospice nurse admitted diverting oxycodone and Oxycontin from two patients
2022-08
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Wisconsin Watertown, WI |
a hospice center | Oxycodone and Oxycontin | The nurse picked up prescriptions for two hospice patients, signed for oxycodone and Oxycontin, delivered fewer tablets than she signed for, and set up e-prescribing requests without physician orders; she admitted to police that she diverted prescription medication from the patients. | not stated | The Board suspended the nurse's license for an indefinite period, stayed the suspension on compliance with treatment, monitoring, and practice restrictions, and restricted the nurse from working in settings with access to controlled substances. | none documented | source |
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Wisconsin Pharmacy Settles Controlled Substance Dispensing and Recordkeeping Violations
2022-04-29
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Wisconsin Cadott, Wisconsin |
Cadott Miller Pharmacy, retail pharmacy (Cadott, WI) | Controlled substances — high-risk drug combinations dispensed 2017-2019 | Filled drug combinations with no legitimate medical purpose, filled prescriptions with no valid Rx on file, allowed unauthorized early refills, dispensed Schedule II drugs for opioid dependence | not stated | DEA immediate suspension order Dec 17, 2019; pharmacy surrendered DEA registration Jan 7, 2020; civil settlement $20,000 — announced Apr 2022 | $20,000 (civil settlement) | source |
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Registered nurse accused of diverting controlled substances from Wisconsin health care facilities
2021-03
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Wisconsin Waukesha, WI |
multiple health care facilities in Wisconsin | controlled substances | Alleged diversion of controlled substances from facilities for personal use and repeated improper administration and wasting of controlled substances; complaints also alleged obtaining and ingesting steroids without a prescription, stealing saline syringes, impairment at work, and failed reasonable suspicion drug tests. | not stated | Interim order suspending the registered nurse license pending final resolution; the nurse voluntarily agreed not to practice in Wisconsin or under multistate privileges during the investigation. | none documented | source |
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Assisted living facility nurse diverted Vicodin from a resident for personal use
2021-02
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Wisconsin Sturgeon Bay, WI |
an assisted living facility | Vicodin | Diverted Vicodin from a resident for personal use on April 30 and May 1, 2019. | not stated | License suspended for an indefinite period; suspension may be stayed upon compliance with conditions including treatment, monitoring, and practice limitations. | none documented | source |
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Wisconsin Dentist Pleads Guilty to Diverting Oxycodone Through Employee's Prescription
2020-03-12
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Wisconsin Mauston, Wisconsin |
Dentist, private dental practice (Mauston, WI) | Oxycodone | Wrote a prescription in his hygienist's name, had her fill it, and took the pills for his own use | not stated | Pleaded guilty March 12, 2020 to obtaining a controlled substance by misrepresentation, fraud, and deception; sentencing set for May 26, 2020 | none documented | source |
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Registered nurse alleged to have diverted controlled substances from a rehabilitation facility in Burlington
2019-12
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Wisconsin Burlington, WI |
a rehabilitation facility (Facility B) | controlled substances | Alleged to have diverted controlled substances from the facility on or around December 3, 2019. | not stated | License surrender accepted; final decision and order dated September 10, 2020; no petition for reinstatement for at least one year and $632 costs before any application is considered. | none documented | source |
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Wausau Physician Pleads Guilty to Diverting Fentanyl Patches from Patients
2019-07-18
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Wisconsin Wausau, Wisconsin |
Hospital-affiliated family practice clinic | Fentanyl patches | Physician prescribed fentanyl patches to patients without medical need and had them return the filled patches to him for personal use | not stated | Guilty plea; sentencing pending at time of report | none documented | source |
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Registered nurse alleged to have diverted a controlled substance from a nursing facility in Mukwonago
2018-11
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Wisconsin Mukwonago, WI |
a nursing facility (Facility A) | a controlled substance | Alleged to have diverted a controlled substance from the facility on or around November 7, 2018. | not stated | License surrender accepted; final decision and order dated September 10, 2020; no petition for reinstatement for at least one year and $632 costs before any application is considered. | none documented | source |
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Madison hospital nurse stole fentanyl vials
2015-08-19
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Wisconsin Madison, WI |
a Madison hospital | fentanyl | stole vials of fentanyl from a hospital; said she had wanted help before being caught diverting | not stated | nursing license fully reinstated | none documented | source |
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Hospital nurse diverted fentanyl from secure medication management stations
2015-05
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Wisconsin Madison, WI |
a hospital in Madison, Wisconsin | fentanyl | The hospital investigation concluded the nurse diverted 18 vials of fentanyl between May 2 and 3, 2015, by accessing a secure medication management station on a day off, making duplicate withdrawals for the same patient from multiple stations, withdrawing medication while not scheduled to work, and withdrawing from units where not actively providing patient care. The nurse neither admitted nor denied the allegations. | not stated | Professional nursing license suspended for an indefinite period; suspension may be stayed after three months under conditions, including drug and alcohol treatment, monitoring, and practice limitations. | none documented | source |
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UW Hospital nurse charged in morphine and hydromorphone syringe diversion
2014-03
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Wisconsin Madison, WI |
UW Hospital | morphine and hydromorphone | Admitted to hospital staff that she was diverting pain-management drugs and taking them for herself since October 2013; a police investigation found she accessed morphine syringes from a secured machine, replaced them with syringes containing water or an unknown liquid, and took the morphine syringes for herself in at least 42 instances. | not stated | Arrested on June 12 and was to be charged with 42 felony counts of diversion of drugs and 42 counts of reckless injury; no longer employed by UW Hospital. | none documented | source |
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Registered nurse diverted morphine and fentanyl from Children's Hospital of Wisconsin stock or waste
2004-11
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Wisconsin Milwaukee County, Wisconsin |
Children's Hospital of Wisconsin | morphine and fentanyl | The Board found that the nurse diverted morphine and fentanyl from hospital stock or waste for personal use over four years until June 28, 2004, and consumed the substances at work without a prescription or other authority. The nurse was also criminally charged with unlawfully obtaining a controlled substance. | not stated | License suspended for six months, then indefinitely, with conditions including treatment, monitoring, and restricted access to controlled substances; partial costs of $200. | none documented | source |
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Children's Wisconsin nurse diverted morphine and fentanyl for self-administration
2000
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Wisconsin | Children's Wisconsin | morphine and fentanyl | stole morphine and fentanyl intended for pediatric patients and self-administered the drugs; convicted of stealing drugs on the job | not stated | charged with multiple felonies; convicted; spent four months in jail; nursing license suspended indefinitely, later fully reinstated; pardoned | 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.