Dighton Nurse Sentenced for Switching Pills

BOSTON — A registered nurse from Dighton will be serving over a year in prison for stealing pain medication from an 89-year-old cancer patient and replacing it with other prescription drugs.

Marietta Strickland, 61, was sentenced on Monday to 15 months in prison and three years of supervised release for drug tampering, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

She pleaded guilty in October 2020 to one count of tampering with a consumer product: a patient's prescription oxycodone pain relief medication.

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Strickland was working as a registered nurse at Dighton Care and Rehabilitation Center when she stole several packages of oxycodone from a hospice patient with Alzheimer’s disease, severe dementia and breast cancer.

The U.S. Attorney's Office said in order to avoid detection she switched the stolen pills with other prescription drugs disguised to look like oxycodone.

Oxycodone is a Schedule II controlled substance.

Due to Strickland's tampering, the victim was deprived of her prescribed oxycodone for at least a month.

She also ingested at least 77 unnecessary prescription pills, according to the office.

U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani handed down the sentence at federal court in Boston.