Two N..H. nurses indicted in theft of fentanyl intended for patients

CONCORD - Two former New Hampshire nurses are accused of diverting fentanyl from patients it was intended

for to their own usage.

Robin Nichols, 63, of Newbury; and Lisa Richardson, 47, of Northfield, were both indicted on one count of tampering with consumer products and one count of obtaining a controlled drug by misrepresentation, fraud, deception, or subterfuge.

Both women made their first appearance in federal court in Concord on Friday.

According to the charging documents related to Nichols, on April 15, while working as a nurse at Catholic Medical Center, she removed a quantity of fentanyl, a narcotic painkiller drug in liquid form, from a syringe intended for an operating room patient and which she knew was intended for that patient and replaced the fentanyl with a quantity of saline.

Meanwhile, Lisa Richardson, on Dec. 30, while working as a nurse at Concord Hospital, allegedly entered the room of a patient in the Intensive Care Unit and removed a quantity of fentanyl from an intravenous line bag attached to the patient and which she knew was being dispensed to that patient, and replaced the fentanyl with a quantity of saline.

Nichols and Richardson's charges of tampering with a consumer product provides for a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000. The charge of obtaining a controlled drug by misrepresentation, fraud, deception, or subterfuge provides for a sentence of up to 4 years in prison, up to one year of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.

Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.

The details contained in the charging documents are allegations. The defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.