A former assistant nursing director at a Crystal Lake rehab center has been sentenced to two years in prison on federal charges of tampering with medication prescribed to patients.
A federal indictment returned in U.S. District Court in Chicago in January 2022 charged Sarah Diamond, 31, of Woodstock.
Prosecutors said Diamond was employed as the assistant director of nursing at a Chicago-area medical rehabilitation center where she was responsible for dispensing medications to patients, including those in hospice care.
According to Diamond’s LinkedIn profile, she worked at Crystal Pines Rehabilitation and Health Care Center in Crystal Lake starting in June 2021.
Diamond was accused of removing morphine from bottles prescribed to patients in July and August 2021 and replacing it with another liquid, knowing the diluted substance would be dispensed to the patients, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors said Diamond diluted the bottle of morphine intended for one of the patients so that it contained only approximately 26% of the declared amount of morphine.
She also diluted a bottle of morphine intended for another patient so that it contained only approximately 53% of the declared amount of morphine, prosecutors said.
Diamond then administered liquid morphine shots to the patients using the diluted bottles and withholding the remainder of the pain medication for her own personal use, prosecutors said.
Diamond removed liquid morphine intended for use by at least five patients at the rehabilitation center, each of whom had been prescribed liquid morphine to manage their pain, prosecutors said.
The indictment said that Diamond tampered with the liquid morphine with “reckless disregard” and “extreme indifference” to the risk that the patients would be placed in danger of bodily injury.
Prosecutors said that in at least one instance, a patientโs family members observed the patient suffering during some of their final moments before dying.
The indictment charged Diamond with two counts of tampering with a consumer product.
Court records show Diamond pleaded guilty in April 2023 to one count of tampering with a consumer product as part of a plea agreement.
A sentencing hearing was held Wednesday in Chicago where U.S. District Judge Manish Shah sentenced Diamond to two years in federal prison. She faced a maximum sentence of ten years.
“Patients deserve to have confidence that they are receiving the legitimately prescribed medication and not a diluted substance,” Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Morris Pasqual said.
“Health care practitioners who illicitly tamper with prescription drugs will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Pasqual said.
โPatients suffering from pain trust their health care providers to provide relief through effective and appropriately dosed medications. We will continue to pursue and bring to justice healthcare professionals who violate their position of trust and jeopardize patientsโ health and well-being by tampering with their pain medications,” Pasqual added.