Kentucky nurse allegedly took patients’ morphine by switching it with colored water
A nurse stole morphine prescribed for patients at a Central Kentucky health care facility by switching it out with water dyed blue, a federal grand jury has charged.
The grand jury indicted Abigail J. Hall, 51, of Lexington on Thursday on four counts of tampering with a consumer product and one charge of obtaining a controlled substance through deception.
The indictment says Hall worked as a contract registered nurse at several facilities in Kentucky in 2023, including a health care facility in Lawrenceburg.
Hall allegedly tampered with four vials of morphine sulfate prescribed to three different patients between August 24 and 27, 2023.
Hall switched out the pain drug “with reckless disregard for the risk that another person would be placed in danger of death or bodily injury, and under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to such risk,” the indictment charges.
The federal indictment does not identify the nursing home but a complaint warrant in state court said it was the Heritage Hall Rehab and Wellness Center, the Herald-Leader reported last year.
The investigation started after an officer with the Lawrenceburg Police Department was dispatched to answer a report that an employee at the facility was leaving work while impaired, according to a complaint warrant.
After an officer stopped Hall while she was driving, Hall admitted taking morphine from the facility and said she had used a dose during her shift, according to the state court record.
She also said she had been stealing morphine for months, according to the warrant.
A representative of the nursing home said Hall worked for an outside staffing agency, and was not an employee of the nursing home.
A state grand jury indicted Hall in December on charges including possession of a controlled substance, theft of a drug and abuse of an adult.
She pleaded not guilty to the state charges.
Federal authorities decided to pursue charges related to the some of the same conduct alleged in the state case, said Jeremy Cornish, assistant chief of police in Lawrenceburg.
State and federal authorities can prosecute a person at the same time under their separate statutory structures.
The federal charge of tampering with morphine is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
