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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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West Virginia Hospital System Settles Federal Controlled-Substance Recordkeeping Case
2026-07-13
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West Virginia Morgantown, West Virginia |
West Virginia University Health System facilities, including J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital, Morgantown, WV | Controlled substances broadly; DEA said most diverted drugs were abused by the medical providers who took them | Between 2017 and 2024, WVUHS facilities systemwide failed to notify the DEA of thefts or significant losses of controlled substances, made errors in controlled-substance orders, failed to maintain accurate and current inventory records, and failed to ensure proper authority for DEA order forms, despite internal reports as early as 2017-2022 of suspected employee diversion | not stated | Agreed to pay $4,177,139 and sign a three-year Memorandum of Agreement with the DEA, announced July 13, 2026 | none documented | source |
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West Virginia Veterinarian Ordered to Pay $956,709 Over Unaccounted-For Opioids
2025-08-05
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West Virginia Winfield, West Virginia |
Veterinary practice, Putnam County, WV | Oxycodone HCL and hydrocodone/acetaminophen | Ordered opioids far in excess of legitimate need, failed to secure or record them, and fabricated dispensing records to cover a 6,593-dose-unit shortfall found during a DEA inspection | not stated | Default judgment of $956,709 in civil penalties ordered Aug. 5, 2025; DEA registration surrendered | $956,709 (civil penalty) | source |
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Travel Nurse Sentenced for Diverting Hydromorphone at West Virginia Hospital
2025-07-03
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West Virginia Beckley, West Virginia |
Travel nurse, Raleigh General Hospital, Beckley, WV (employed Sept. 2021-Feb. 2022) | Hydromorphone | Used own biometrics and a patient's health information to open an automated medication dispensing/monitoring machine, siphoned off drug, diluted the remaining vial, and voided transactions to conceal the theft | not stated | Pleaded guilty to obtaining a controlled substance by fraud and wrongful disclosure of health information; sentenced July 3, 2025 to 5 years prison; nursing license suspended indefinitely. Of the 5-year sentence, two years were for obtaining a controlled substance and three years for wrongful disclosure of individually identifiable health information. | none documented | source |
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Traveling Nurse Diverted Hydromorphone from Beckley Hospital Using Patients' Health Information
2025-07-03
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West Virginia Beckley, WV |
Raleigh General Hospital, Beckley, WV | Hydromorphone | Used biometrics and patients' health information to check out hydromorphone, siphoned off part of each vial, diluted the remainder, and canceled the transactions to conceal the removals | not stated | Sentenced Jul 3, 2025, to five years in prison; nursing privilege in WV indefinitely suspended | none documented | source |
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Travel nurse at Beckley hospital diverted hydromorphone, sentenced to five years
2025-07
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West Virginia | Raleigh General Hospital, Beckley, WV | Hydromorphone | not stated | Travel nurse (Kentucky resident) working in southern West Virginia | not stated | none documented | source |
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Travel Nurse Diverted Hydromorphone Using Patients' Health Information
2024-12-11
|
West Virginia Beckley, West Virginia |
Raleigh General Hospital, Beckley, West Virginia | Hydromorphone | Used personal biometrics to access dispensing cabinets, siphoned and diluted vial contents, resealed vials, then canceled the transaction | not stated | Pleaded guilty Dec. 11, 2024, to fraud and wrongful disclosure of health information; sentencing set for April 2025. In exchange for the plea, prosecutors agreed to dismiss a third charge of attempting to tamper with a consumer product; maximum penalty was 14 years in prison. | none documented | source |
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Morgantown pharmacist sentenced to 121 months for distributing oxycodone outside professional practice
2019-05
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West Virginia | Pharmacy practice in Morgantown / Monongalia County, WV | Oxycodone (more than 7,400 grams) | not stated | Licensed pharmacist | not stated | none documented | source |
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Hospital nurse diverted hydrocodone intended for a patient and falsified records
2015-06
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West Virginia Parkersburg, WV |
Camden Clark Medical Center | hydrocodone | Admitted to taking two 5 mg hydrocodone pills intended for a patient, keeping them for personal use, and falsely documenting in the patient file that the medication had been given to the patient. | not stated | Pleaded guilty to obtaining a controlled substance by misrepresentation, fraud, forgery, deception, and subterfuge; terminated from employment on June 27, 2015; faces up to four years in federal prison; sentencing set for October 1, 2018. | none documented | source |
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Sweetbriar Assisted Living nurse sentenced for hydrocodone theft and falsifying records
2013-06
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West Virginia Charleston, WV |
Sweetbriar Assisted Living | hydrocodone | obtaining hydrocodone by fraud; admitted stealing hydrocodone intended for patients for personal use and falsifying records to cover up the theft | not stated | sentenced to five years of probation; previously pleaded guilty | 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.