VA nurse pleaded guilty to stealing fentanyl, morp…

What Happened

A nurse pleaded guilty to stealing fentanyl, morphine and hydromorphone from the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Denver.

The nurse diverted from two facilities, including the VA, and was sentenced to 14 months in prison.

What the Record Shows

Pleaded guilty; sentenced to 14 months in prison

Why It Matters for Diversion Programs

This entry comes from a news source rather than a federal enforcement release, and it is recorded as reported: stealing fentanyl, morphine and hydromorphone from the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Denver. Board and news records are a lagging indicator - by the time a licensing authority or a 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.

Sources

https://healthcarediversion.org/nursing

Case at a Glance

Setting: Denver Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center, VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System
Drug: fentanyl, morphine and hydromorphone
Method: stealing fentanyl, morphine and hydromorphone from the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Denver
Status: Pleaded guilty; sentenced to 14 months in prison

News coverage: https://healthcarediversion.org/nursing

No published federal, state or licensing-board record was located for this case; the link above is contemporaneous news coverage.

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Last reviewed: September 2026 · Educational content, not legal advice.

About the author

DivertGuard is built and maintained by Alex Rodriguez, MHIIM, CPhT (also known as Jesus Rodriguez) — a healthcare compliance analytics professional with more than a decade in pharmacy practice and direct responsibility for a health-system controlled substance diversion prevention program.

IHFDA Annual Conference presentations

2025 — The Rounding Revolution: A High-Tech Approach to Diversion Prevention (with Emily Spiceland, PharmD)
2024 — No Pill Left Behind: Strategies for Comprehensive Drug Accountability (with Eric Andrews)
2022 — Ready for My Close Up! Implementing, Maintaining, and Expanding Drug Diversion Prevention Cameras (with Jeremy Quinn, Shawn Young, and John Bailey)

Other professional engagement

Faculty, ASHP Drug Diversion Certificate
Speaker, Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA)
Published author, Pharmacy Purchasing & Products

Credentials

MHIIM — Master of Health Informatics and Information Management, University of Tennessee Health Science Center (2019–2021)
CPhT — Certified Pharmacy Technician, with 10+ years of pharmacy practice across retail, hospice, compounding, home-health, and hospital settings

The assessment items, weighting, and case registry behind this site come from that operational background — building and running a diversion prevention program, not from vendor marketing. Every tool here is free, requires no signup, and is based on published regulatory and professional standards (DEA, Joint Commission, ASHP, CDC).

Full author bio and credentials →

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VA nurse pleaded guilty to stealing fentanyl, morphine and hydromorphone