Incidentcase35

Two former nurses accused of stealing prescribed drugs for hospice patients were sentenced to three years in prison.

The Minot Daily News reports that 40-year-old April Beckler and 47-year-old Kim Kochel were sentenced on Friday. They pleaded guilty in May to endangering a vulnerable adult and criminal conspiracy.

Prosecutors say Kochel and Beckler stole the drugs between December 2012 and September 2014 while working for Trinity Hospice.

Family members of some of the victims testified Friday that the patients suffered excruciating pain because they were not receiving the pain medication that had been prescribed after Kochel or Beckler diluted it or substituted less potent medication.

Both Kochel and Beckler are accused of stealing drugs prescribed for hospice patients between December 2012 and Sept. 8, 2014. Beckler and Kochel are also charged with endangering a patient by diluting medication or giving morphine instead of the more potent hydromorphone that was prescribed to manage pain. Beckler allegedly confessed that her role in the thefts started after she and Kochel worked together after a patient died. They brought the unused medication back to the office and both ingested the medication. She then began using the medication herself and had been doing so for more than a year.

All of the hospice patients in question were living either in assisted living or nursing facilities or were cared for at home. Authorities had discovered some discrepancies in record keeping for other hospice nurses in addition to Kochel and Beckler and have stepped up enforcement of the rules.