MANHATTAN — A registered nurse in Manhattan has been sentenced to three years in federal prison for diverting prescription medicines. Christine Swanson, 30, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute oxycodone and one count of obstructing justice, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said. She admitted she diverted the painkiller oxycodone with the help of her sister and pharmacist Katherine Surowski, and a friend, Denise Carlson., also a nurse. Grissom said Swanson and Carlson worked at Mercy Hospital in Manhattan and forged physicians’ signatures on stolen blank prescription pads. They then waited until Surowski was on duty at the Salina K-Mart pharmacy so they could take the forged prescriptions to her to be filled, he said. The conspirators diverted more than 2,400 pills of oxycodone and oxycontin, he said. The other two women face sentencing later. In another case, a 37-year-old Emporia nurse has been charged in federal court with one count of tampering with a consumer product and one count of adulterating a prescription drug. Grissom says Wendy Parmenter is accused of replacing a nursing home patient’s pain-killers with water so she could get enough morphine to feed her addiction to hydrocodone.
Thursday, June 16, 11 p.m.
