FRANKFORT, KY – A Lexington, Ky., woman, Abigail Hall, 51, was sentenced on Monday to 60 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove, for tampering with a consumer product.
According to her plea agreement, between January 2023 and August 2023, Hall worked as a contract registered nurse at several facilities in Kentucky, including a health care facility in Lawrenceburg, Ky., that focused on care for the elderly and infirm. Hall admitted that on August 27, 2023, she took morphine that had been prescribed for three patients that she was treating at the healthcare facility, all of whom had significant disease and pain concerns. Hall replaced the stolen morphine with water and blue food coloring, to resemble the real medication. Ultimately, Hall took at least seven syringes of stolen morphine and administered the tampered morphine to at least one of the patients.
Under federal law, Hall must serve 85 percent of her prison sentence. Upon her release from prison, she will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for three years.
Paul McCaffrey, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, and George A. Scavdis, Special Agent in Charge, FDA Office of Criminal Investigations, Metro Washington Field Office, jointly announced the sentence.
The investigation was conducted by FDA-OCI. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kate Smith is prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.
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