Worcester Nurse Guilty of Tampering With Drugs

WORCESTER, MA — A Worcester nurse pleaded guilty on Tuesday in connection with stealing painkillers from the nursing home where she worked and attempting to conceal her crime by replacing the medication with saline.

Lea Roberge, 32, pleaded guilty to two counts of tampering with a consumer product, specifically the Schedule II controlled substance morphine, which is used for pain relief, said the U.S. Attorney's Office. She will be sentenced on April 5.

Roberge, according to reports, on two separate occasions in March of 2015, while working as a registered nurse at Holy Trinity Eastern Orthodox Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, tampered with morphine sulfate contained in emergency narcotic kits. Roberge had access to these emergency narcotic kits and used a syringe to extract morphine from six vials and one bottle. In an attempt to avoid detection, she replaced the extracted medication with saline, thereby decreasing the potency of the drug, said the announcement.

Roberge could face up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000.

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