Former Massachusetts nurse charged with stealing fentanyl, including from a patient, from two different hospitals

BOSTON – A former Massachusetts nurse has been charged and has agreed to plead guilty in connection with the diversion of opioids from two different hospitals.

33-year-old Lisa Tarr, of St. Petersburg, Fla., was charged and has agreed to plead guilty to four counts of unlawfully obtaining controlled substances by fraud, deception and subterfuge. A plea hearing has not yet been scheduled by the Court.

According to the charging documents, in August 2018, Tarr was a Student Nurse working at a Boston-area hospital. It is alleged that Tarr admitted to investigators at the hospital that she had stolen and self-injected fentanyl, a Schedule II controlled substance, from the hospital.

In 2020, while working for another Boston-area hospital, Tarr stole an infusion bag containing fentanyl that was being used to treat a patient. On another occasion in 2020, while still working at the second hospital, Tarr stole multiple syringes of hydromorphone, a Schedule II controlled substance, from a locked drug cabinet.

The charge of unlawfully obtaining controlled substances by fraud provides a sentence of no greater than four years in prison, 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.

United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins; Fernando McMillan, Special Agent in Charge of the Food and Drug Administration, Office of Criminal Investigations, New York Field Office; and Margret Cooke, the Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly Begg Lawrence, Chief of Rollins’ Health Care Fraud Unit, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Evan Panich of Rollins’ Narcotics & Money Laundering Unit are prosecuting the case.