Nurse who stole morphine prescribed to patients at Kentucky nursing home sentenced
A nurse who stole morphine from a Kentucky nursing home and replaced it with colored water was sentenced to five years in prison.
Abigail Hall, 51, of Lexington, pleaded guilty to tampering with a consumer product.
Hall, a registered nurse, worked at several health facilities in Central Kentucky, including one in Lawrenceburg where she tampered with syringes of morphine, according to the court record.
A state warrant identified the facility in Lawrenceburg as Heritage Hall Rehab and Wellness Center.
Hall worked there through a staffing agency, the company said at the time she was arrested in August 2023.
The investigation that led to charges started after Lawrenceburg police received a report that Hall was leaving work while impaired, according to the state court record.
After an officer stopped Hall, she admitted to taking morphine from the facility and said she had used a dose during her shift.
Police said Hall told them she had been stealing morphine since January 2023.
Hall acknowledged in her federal plea that on Aug. 27, 2023, she used water dyed with blue food coloring to replace morphine that had been prescribed to three patients.
The patients had “significant disease and pain concerns,” and at least one was not able to speak, according to her plea agreement.
Hall administered the water to one patient that day, her plea said.
U.S. District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove sentenced Hall on March 24 in federal court in Frankfort.
She had been in federal custody since June 2024, according to the court record.
