Nurse Diverted from First of Two Facilities

U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson, on April 20, 2018, sentenced Marlene Gilmore, 28, to four months in prison after she pleaded guilty to stealing those drugs from North Colorado Medical Center in Greeley in 2016.

Past indiscretions involving drug thefts did not bring an end to her medical career. Court documents show that Gilmore in 2014 resigned from the University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora, where she worked as a nurse in the cardiac unit, after authorities there confronted her about her diversion of drugs from the hospital. Multiple employees reported to hospital managers that she was slurring her speech, falling over in her chair and nodding off. One hospital employee also reported finding a bloody syringe and blood drops in a bathroom Gilmore had used.

Despite that resignation, Gilmore found work in 2015 at North Colorado Medical Center in Greeley in the critical care unit, where she stole fentanyl, morphine and hydromorphone, according to her guilty plea. She tried to cover up her crimes by refilling those drug containers with tap water, court documents state. At least four times, tests determined the drug containers were contaminated with bacteria or fungi, according to documents.

In court filings, prosecutors alleged she stole the drugs at least 132 times. “Though there are no reported instances of actual patient injury, the risk was very real and the defendant’s disregard for the safety of others is apparent through her conduct,” prosecutors said in the filing.