Tewksbury Woman Sentenced For Stealing Morphine From Veterans

Tewksbury MA

25 February, 2021

10:32 AM

Description

TEWKSBURY, MA — A Tewksbury woman who pleaded guilty to diverting morphine meant for veteran hospice patients was sentenced Wednesday to 40 months in prison and three years supervised release, federal prosecutors said. Kathleen Noftle, 55, was a nurse in the Bedford Veteran Affairs Medical Center hospice unit. In Oct. 2020, she pleaded guilty to one count of tampering with a consumer product and one count of obtaining a controlled substance by misrepresentation, fraud, deception and subterfuge. In 2017, Noftle used her position to obtain morphine meant for veterans in her care, prosecutors said. She admitted to mixing water from the sink into liquid morphine doses and then administering the diluted drug orally. She then ingested a diluted amount of the remaining drug herself, prosecutors said. Noftle was arrested and charged in Sept. 2019. Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or [email protected].