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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Rawlins physician sentenced federally for dispensing medically unnecessary controlled substances
2020-12
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Wyoming Rawlins, WY |
medical practice in Rawlins, Wyoming | oxycodone, alprazolam, hydrocodone, tramadol and other controlled substances | Pleaded guilty to 20 counts of dispensing medically unnecessary controlled substances; prosecutors said some patients were addicts or became addicted, that drugs were traded for sexual favors, and that 430 oxycodone pills were prescribed to a young female patient in return for lewd photographs. | not stated | Sentenced to 20 concurrent five-year prison terms, six years of supervised release, a $2,000 special assessment and $400 restitution; license previously suspended by the state medical board. | none documented | source |
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Rawlins physician charged with prescribing oxycodone and other controlled substances outside legitimate medical practice
2020-02
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Wyoming Rawlins, WY |
Practice | oxycodone, alprazolam, tramadol, promethazine with codeine, amphetamine/dextroamphetamine, hydrocodone | Charged in a 32-count federal indictment with dispensing controlled substances from 2014 to 2017 often without a legitimate medical purpose and outside the usual course of professional practice, including to persons under 21 and to pregnant women under 21; the state medical board found in 2017 that the physician was inappropriately prescribing controlled substances for other than legitimate purposes, prescribing to known abusers, and offering drugs in exchange for sex. | not stated | Federal criminal charges (32 counts) with a guilty plea scheduled; 2017 license suspension; voluntary relinquishment of license accepted August 2018. | none documented | source |
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Casper pharmacy agreed to $1 million civil settlement over controlled substance dispensing allegations
2020-01
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Wyoming | Community pharmacy in Casper, Wyoming | Narcotic prescription medications | not stated | Retail pharmacy (Osco Pharmacy) | not stated | none documented | source |
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Wyoming hospital nurse sentenced for diluting hydromorphone and meperidine vials
2018-02-21
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Wyoming | Hospital in Douglas, Wyoming (Memorial Hospital of Converse County) | Hydromorphone and meperidine | not stated | Registered nurse | not stated | none documented | source |
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Former registered nurse at Memorial Hospital of Converse County sentenced for stealing hydromorphone and meperidine and replacing them with saline
2018-02
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Wyoming Douglas, WY |
Memorial Hospital of Converse County | hydromorphone (Dilaudid) and meperidine (Demerol) | The former nurse pleaded guilty to one count of tampering with a consumer product and one count of acquiring a controlled substance by misrepresentation, deception or subterfuge. An indictment alleged tampering with 58 vials of hydromorphone and one container of meperidine by removing some or all of the drug and replacing it with saline solution. The former nurse admitted to stealing hydromorphone and a hospital spokesman said the former nurse personally used the drugs. | not stated | Sentenced to two concurrent eight-month prison terms and two concurrent three-year terms of supervised release, with home confinement except for court-approved activities, cognitive-behavioral treatment, and substance abuse treatment. The Wyoming State Board of Nursing suspended the nurse's license. | none documented | source |
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Former hospital nurse in Douglas charged with stealing and diluting hydromorphone and meperidine
2017-10
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Wyoming Douglas, WY |
Memorial Hospital of Converse County | hydromorphone (Dilaudid) and meperidine (Demerol) | Alleged tampering with consumer products by removing some or all of hydromorphone and meperidine and replacing the drugs with saline solution; alleged acquiring Schedule II controlled substances by removing them from their containers and replacing them with saline solution. A hospital spokesman said the former nurse admitted to stealing hydromorphone. | not stated | Pleaded not guilty to four counts; placed on administrative leave and license suspended by the Wyoming State Board of Nursing; remains free on an unsecured bond and a trial was set. | none documented | source |
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Registered nurse accused of diverting hydromorphone at Memorial Hospital of Converse County by replacing it with saline
2017-06
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Wyoming Douglas, WY |
Memorial Hospital of Converse County | hydromorphone (Dilaudid); also Demerol and fentanyl | Allegedly stole hydromorphone for personal use; drew hydromorphone from vials and refilled them with saline; overrode the automated medication dispensing system; tampered with containers of Demerol and fentanyl. A hospital official said the nurse admitted to stealing the hydromorphone. | not stated | Placed on administrative leave; nursing license summarily suspended by the Wyoming State Board of Nursing; state boards and police investigating; no criminal charges filed at that point. | none documented | source |
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Wyoming pharmacy technician-in-training surrendered permit over controlled-substance diversion
2017-03
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Wyoming | not stated | not stated | not stated | Pharmacy technician-in-training | not stated | none documented | source |
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Casper physician suspended over alleged excessive painkiller prescriptions and oxycodone conspiracy
2016-12
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Wyoming Casper, WY |
Casper, WY | oxycodone, methadone, fentanyl, hydrocodone, phentermine, hydromorphone, tramadol, testosterone cypionate | The board found the physician prescribed high amounts of oxycodone, methadone, and fentanyl to one patient and may have conspired to acquire a scheduled drug by deception for use by someone other than that patient; prescribed controlled substances to a patient with whom he was in a relationship and may have obtained them by fraud; and increased and decreased oxycodone doses for another patient, which the board said could be careless disregard or conspiracy to acquire a narcotic by fraud. | not stated | Wyoming Board of Medicine summarily suspended the physician's license until a formal complaint and hearing; the physician was arrested and charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute oxycodone. | 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.