A former nurse who worked in the emergency department of a regional medical center in Keene, New Hampshire, pleaded guilty to obtaining morphine by fraud. Prosecutors alleged that between June 2024 and January 2025 he repeatedly administered only partial doses of opioids, including fentanyl, morphine and hydromorphone, and kept the remaining amounts for himself.
The conduct was first uncovered on January 16, 2025, when hospital staff identified irregularities in the administration of controlled substances. Hospital officials said they promptly notified law enforcement and regulators once the misconduct was detected and terminated the nurse's employment. A grand jury indicted him in June 2025. The New Hampshire Board of Nursing suspended his license, and he surrendered it in May.
In December 2025 a Cheshire County Superior Court judge sentenced him to one to four years in state prison but suspended the entire term on condition that he remain on good behavior, complete two years of probation and follow all treatment and monitoring requirements. The sentence also bars him from entering the hospital except for medical care, mandates substance use disorder treatment and counseling, and requires a DNA sample under state law.
The case was the second opioid diversion matter at the same hospital in a few years. An earlier case involving an ICU nurse who admitted stealing hundreds of bags of fentanyl solution led to new monitoring protocols, yet this diversion occurred nearly three years later despite those measures.