What Happened
A Colorado registered nurse was sentenced to 12 months in federal prison for using her position to access patients she was not assigned to care for, falsely telling them she was conducting a study on patient-controlled analgesia pumps, then using a key to open the pump's secured hydromorphone syringe and remove a portion of the drug for herself before returning the syringe to circulation.
What the Record Shows
Falsely told patients not assigned to her care that she was conducting a PCA-pump study, used a key to open the secured syringe, removed a portion of hydromorphone from it, and returned the syringe to the patient's PCA; obtained the drug from three patients on four occasions and fabricated a false email to law enforcement to support her cover story Sentenced to 12 months in federal prison plus one year of supervised release for obtaining controlled substances by fraud and deception
Why It Matters for Diversion Programs
This entry comes from a primary licensing-board or law-enforcement record rather than a secondary aggregator, and it is recorded as reported. Board and news records are a lagging indicator - by the time a licensing authority or reporter learns of a diversion, the diversion was normally detected internally first, which makes each entry a signal that inventory reconciliation, waste observation, or dispensing oversight failed earlier.