A former nurse from Lexington, Kentucky, Abigail Hall, has been sentenced to 60 months in prison for tampering with a consumer product. U.S. District Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove handed down the sentence on Monday.
Hall, aged 51, admitted to tampering with medication while working as a contract registered nurse at several facilities in Kentucky between January and August 2023. Her actions included taking morphine prescribed for patients at a healthcare facility in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. She replaced the stolen morphine with water and blue food coloring to mimic the appearance of the original medication. Hall acknowledged that she took at least seven syringes of morphine and administered the altered substance to at least one patient.
Under federal law, Hall is required to serve 85 percent of her sentence before being eligible for release. Following her imprisonment, she will be supervised by the U.S. Probation Office for three years.
The sentencing was announced by Paul McCaffrey, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, alongside George A. Scavdis, Special Agent in Charge of the FDA Office of Criminal Investigations' Metro Washington Field Office.
The investigation into Hall's actions was conducted by FDA-OCI. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kate Smith is prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.
