BOSTON — A registered nurse caring for a non-verbal hospice patient in Massachusetts is accused of replacing the patient’s pain medication with household cleaner, federal prosecutors said.
Lori Robertson, 65, of Salem, New Hampshire, was charged with one count of tampering with a consumer product.
She was indicted by a federal grand jury in Boston on Oct. 30 and was arrested the next day, according to court documents. She pleaded not guilty to the charge on Oct. 31 and was released on the conditions that she does not drink alcohol, not be employed where she can access drugs, and that she submit to drug tests.
Robertson worked at a long-term care and rehabilitation center in Amesbury, Massachusetts, located about 41 miles northeast of Boston near the New Hampshire border.
Robertson was in charge of several patients and had access to their prescribed medications, prosecutors wrote in her indictment.
Prosecutors allege that on March 31, Robertson replaced a hospice patient’s oxycodone, a drug used to treat pain, with “household cleaner” by removing the drug with a syringe.
It was unclear what type of cleaner Robertson was accused of substituting. It was not mentioned in court filings.
According to court documents, Robertson “with reckless disregard for the risk that another person would be placed in danger of death and bodily injury, and under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to such risk, did tamper with a consumer product that affected interstate commerce.”
Robertson has an initial status conference scheduled for Nov. 24, court records show.
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