Nurse swapped hospice patient’s medicine with household cleaner in MA, feds say

A registered nurse caring for a non-verbal hospice patient in Massachusetts was caught replacing the patient’s liquid pain medication with household cleaner, according to federal prosecutors.

Now, a federal indictment charges the nurse, Lori Robertson, of Salem, New Hampshire, with one count of tampering with a consumer product.

Federal authorities arrested Robertson, who worked at a long-term care and rehabilitation center in Amesbury, Massachusetts, on Oct. 31, according to court records. She pleaded not guilty at an arraignment that day.

McClatchy News attempted to reach Robertson’s attorney for comment on Nov. 3 and did not receive an immediate response.

At the Amesbury care facility, Robertson was in charge of several patients and had access to their prescribed medications, including opioids, prosecutors wrote in her indictment, which was first reported on by the Boston Herald.

On March 31, while treating the hospice patient, who has dementia, Robertson is accused of tampering with their liquid oxycodone.

Oxycodone is an opioid meant to treat severe pain in patients.

Robertson, according to the indictment, removed her patient’s oxycodone with a syringe, then put a household cleaner in the medication’s place. The type of cleaner was not specified in the filing.

The indictment says that 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.”

Prosecutors filed the indictment in Boston federal court on Oct. 30.

Robertson has been released on certain conditions ahead of an initial status conference scheduled for Nov. 24, records show.

Her release conditions include not using alcohol or controlled substances and participating in a substance abuse treatment program. She is also prohibited from working somewhere that would allow her access to prescription medication, Robertson’s release order shows.

Amesbury is about a 40-mile drive northeast from Boston.

Julia Marnin

McClatchy DC

Julia Marnin covers courts for McClatchy News, writing about criminal and civil affairs, including cases involving policing, corrections, civil liberties, fraud, and abuses of power. As a reporter on McClatchy’s National Real-Time Team, she’s also covered the COVID-19 pandemic and a variety of other topics since joining in 2021, following a fellowship with Newsweek. Born in Biloxi, Mississippi, she was raised in South Jersey and is now based in New York State.