Paramedic Pleads Guilty to Stealing Fentanyl and Morphine

A former paramedic with two Northwest Missouri ambulance districts pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to stealing painkilling drugs and replacing the vials with water.

Joseph L. Comstock, 31, of Bethany, Missouri, waived his right to a grand jury and pleaded guilty to federal information that charges him with three counts of tampering with a consumer product (fentanyl and morphine) with reckless disregard for the risk that another person would be placed in danger of death or bodily injury, and under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to such risk.

Comstock admitted that he emptied vials of morphine and fentanyl, taking them for his own personal use and replacing the painkilling drugs with sterilized water. Comstock tampered with the drug vials while working at both the NTA Ambulance District in Bethany and the Community Ambulance District of Daviess County in Gallatin, Missouri, in 2014 and 2015.

Comstock admitted there were at least two occasions where he personally treated patients with drugs he knew he had tampered with. These patients were both hip fracture patients who were supposed to receive fentanyl but instead received sterile water that Comstock had replaced in the vial.

He started tampering with drugs in March 2014, following a medical procedure to remove his tonsils. He accessed drugs on ambulances and was able to bend up the lid of the plastic boxes and dump out the drugs. He obtained both fentanyl and morphine from ambulances and replaced the drugs with sterile water.

Federal officials were notified on March 4, 2015, of possible drug tampering at the NTA Ambulance District in Bethany.

Federal agents installed surveillance equipment at the Bethany NTA building on March 18, 2015. Comstock was recorded on the surveillance video as he stole morphine from the ambulance on two separate occasions.

Comstock also admitted that he tampered with drugs when he visited the Gallatin ambulance building on Feb. 24, 2015. An employee found Comstock (who had stopped working at the Gallatin ambulance company in June 2014) inside the building. Comstock explained he had come by the Gallatin facility to use the treadmill. Later that same day, the employee went on a service call and treated a man suffering from leg pain with 100 mcg of fentanyl.

However, the man did not receive any pain relief. When the employee returned, he examined the narcotics cabinet and found several fentanyl vials with loose caps, as well as morphine that appeared to have been tampered with.