Nurse had sex with patients, prescribed ‘dangerous’ pill combinations, feds say
A nurse who had the authority to prescribe pills did so for two patients she had sex with over the course of four years, federal prosecutors said.
During this time, the advanced practice registered nurse from Dyersburg, Tennessee, also prescribed “dangerous” pill combinations — including the “Holy Trinity,” which is known as a mix of a benzodiazepine, an opioid and muscle relaxant, according to court documents.
The nurse who ran the Convenient Care Clinic was caught illegally distributing prescription drugs, prosecutors said.
In the case’s latest development, the woman, 41, pleaded guilty to two counts of unlawfully distributing controlled substances as well as healthcare fraud, the Justice Department announced in a May 9 news release.
She could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison on each controlled substance count, prosecutors said.
She also could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison in connection with billing Medicare and Medicaid for medical services she never performed herself, prosecutors said. Medicare and Medicaid paid her about $16,234 as a result, according to officials.
McClatchy News tried to contact federal public defender Dianne Smothers, who represents the woman in the case, and didn’t immediately receive a response.
Months before charges were filed against the nurse in the federal case, the Tennessee Board of Nursing forced her to stop practicing as a nurse in the state and suspended her nursing license and advanced practice registered nurse certificate in June 2021, prosecutors said.
The board accused the woman’s conduct of being “so severe that it imperatively requires emergency action in order to protect the public health, safety, and welfare,” according to a July 2021 report by WREG-TV.
She was accused of being “unprofessional” at work, pulling a clinic door off the hinges and bringing sex toys into the clinic, the outlet reported.
From January 2017 through early 2021, she issued more than 50,000 controlled substance prescriptions, including more than 2 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills and over 900,000 benzodiazepines, according to an indictment, which didn’t specify how many of these prescriptions were illegal. During this time frame, she’s accused of having sex with two patients.
It’s unclear if the patients she had sex with were prescribed drugs with or without a valid medical reason.
A plea agreement shows the woman ultimately admitted to illegally distributing 3,525 mg of hydrocodone, 3,600 mg of oxycodone, 1800 mg of amphetamines and 120 units of alprazolam without a legitimate purpose.
She also left pre-signed prescriptions so her coworkers could distribute drugs when she was out, according to the indictment.
Hundreds of opioid prescriptions, issued by the nurse, were “dispensed” when she wasn’t at work, the indictment says.
The case against the woman was prosecuted in the Western District of Tennessee.
Dyersburg is about 80 miles northeast of Memphis.
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