Nurse at Crystal Lake rehab sentenced to 2 years in federal prison for tampering with medications

A nurse who worked at a Crystal Lake rehabilitation center has been sentenced to two years in federal prison for tampering with patients’ morphine prescriptions, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Illinois reports.

Woodstock resident Sarah Diamond, 31, was employed as the assistant director of nursing at an unnamed Crystal Lake medical rehabilitation center, where she was responsible for dispensing medications to patients, including those in hospice care, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Diamond removed morphine from prescribed bottles to at least five patients and diluted it with another liquid in summer 2021, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Diamond used the removed morphine for her own personal use and “with reckless disregard and extreme indifference for the risk that the patients would be placed in danger of bodily injury,” according to the release.

Diamond was indicted on two counts of tampering with a consumer product in 2022, and pleaded guilty to the charges last year, according to the release.

Diamond was sentenced to two years in federal prison Wednesday and is expected to start her term June 28. Diamond will be under supervised release for another two years after her sentence, according to court documents.

“Valuable assistance” was provided by the Crystal Lake Police Department in the case, according to the release.

“Patients deserve to have confidence that they are receiving the legitimately prescribed medication and not a diluted substance,” U.S. Attorney Pasqual said in the release. “Health care practitioners who illicitly tamper with prescription drugs will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”