Former Nurse Pleads Guilty to Tampering with Fentanyl

Catherine Shannon Dunton, 54, has pled guilty in federal district court in Fort Pierce to tampering with a consumer product.

From approximately February 28 to April 18, 2022, Dunton, a Florida licensed Registered Nurse (RN), worked at an outpatient surgical center in Jensen Beach, Martin County, Fla. as a circulating nurse. While working at the center, Dunton took vials of fentanyl, a narcotic painkiller in liquid form, and self-administered it by injection. To avoid detection, she replaced the fentanyl from nearly 450 vials with saline solution, and then returned the adulterated vials to the center for use during outpatient surgical procedures.

At sentencing, Dunton faces up to 10 years in prison, followed by up to three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000.

According to an investigation conducted in August by the Florida Department of Health, during a two-month period beginning in February at The Surgery Center of Jensen Beach, Dunton took vials of pain relievers meant for patients and swapped them with saline. Dunton, hired at the center in 2021, reported switching the fentanyl for saline vials “two to three days a week.”

“Ms. Dunton admitted that she knew there were occasions where the patients would only receive the saline,” a state emergency restriction order stated.

State records show Dunton had a history of substance abuse troubles, dating to 2008, when she worked at HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital in Fort Pierce.

In May 2022, Dunton reported to the Intervention Project for Nurses, an impaired practitioner program, she had completed an alcohol and drug treatment program. She was evaluated by Dr. Lawrence Wilson, who specializes in addiction medicine and psychiatry, records show.

During her evaluation, Dunton acknowledged that while working at Lawnwood, she diverted powerful painkillers including Demerol, morphine, fentanyl and Percocet “for her personal use,” according to a state emergency order. Her nursing license was temporarily suspended in 2012 after an employer-requested drug screen returned positive for fentanyl. She told Wilson that in March 2021 she started to occasionally consume alcohol and that she experienced blackouts. She took a toxicology test in May and came back positive for fentanyl, the records show. Wilson diagnosed Dunton with severe opioid use disorder and an alcohol addiction and concluded she was “not able to practice nursing with reasonable skill and safety to patients.”