Incident 40134

A former registered nurse pleaded guilty on January 28, 2021 to stealing and adulterating pain medication from a drug cabinet at Beverly Hospital while working there in early 2016.

Mark Croft used information from at least two patients’ charts to gain access to an automated dispensing machine, where he took injectable vials of two opioid-based medications, withdrew a significant portion of the contents, then replaced the missing liquid in the vials with saline solution and put them back into the cabinet, a federal prosecutor said.

Croft is facing up to four years, three months in federal prison when he is sentenced on May 20, a U.S. District Court judge advised him during the hearing, which took place remotely.

But he could also become eligible for a federal court diversion program called RISE (Repair, Invest, Succeed, Emerge) which would defer his sentencing if he completes a program that includes intensive drug treatment and counseling, similar to state drug court programs. If a defendant successfully completes the program, a judge can take that into consideration during sentencing.

Judge Allison Burroughs said she will consider referring Croft to that program after hearing from the court’s pre-trial services department, which will conduct a pre-sentencing investigation.

Croft, 48, of West Boylston, was hired to work in Beverly Hospital’s emergency room in 2015. At the time, he was already facing disciplinary action by the Board of Registration in Nursing based on allegations at three other hospitals in the central and western part of the state.

Despite entering a voluntary agreement not to practice shortly after he was hired at Beverly Hospital, Croft did not tell the hospital of the change in his status.

Prosecutor Patrick Callahan said that the incidents, on Jan. 5 and Jan. 10, 2016, involved Croft using the information of patients in the ER who had not been prescribed opioids. The drugs involved were meperidine, the generic form of Demerol and hydromorphone, the generic form of Dilaudid.

Prosecutors did not identify the hospital by name during the hearing, referring to it as “Hospital A.” But the Department of Public Health confirmed that the thefts occurred at Beverly Hospital.

The hospital said earlier this month that it had fully cooperated with the investigation.

DPH said the disciplinary actions Croft was already facing when he went to work at Beverly Hospital involved similar conduct. He surrendered his nursing license in February 2016.

Croft told the judge Thursday that he has been sober for the past four years.

His attorney, Syrie Fried, told the judge Croft is getting by on a minimum wage job delivering pizzas.

Croft and Fried agreed to waive his right to an indictment, and Croft pleaded guilty to one count each of tampering with a consumer product and obtaining drugs by fraud under the terms of a plea agreement.

Callahan is asking for a 42-month prison term. The maximum penalty for the two charges is a total of 14 years in prison. But Burroughs told Croft that she would not go any higher than 51 months if she does impose prison time.