A nurse from Haverhill was charged last week in federal court with one count of drug tampering and faces up to 10 years in prison, the U.S. Attorney’s office confirms.
Lauren Perrin, 47, is accused of tampering with the pain relief medication morphine while working at Amesbury’s Maplewood Care and Rehabilitation Center. Court records show Perrin tampered with three morphine bottles prescribed to a hospice patient by replacing extracted medication with another liquid. In the process, she lowered the potency of the medication to between four to 29 percent of the intended potency. It is not clear when the incident took place.
If convicted, Perrin faces up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine that could be as high as $250,000.
Representatives from the criminal arm of the Food and Drug Administration, Massachusetts Department of Public Health and other agencies helped investigate the case being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s office’s healthcare fraud unit.