Alicia Nickel-Tangeman, age 44, formerly of Woodland Park, Colorado, was sentenced to 12 months in federal prison for obtaining controlled substances using fraud and deception while she was on the job as a Registered Nurse (RN) at a hospital in Colorado. Following her term of incarceration, Nickel-Tangeman will serve one year of supervised release. According to court documents, Ms. Nickel-Tangeman used her position as RN to access the rooms of patients she was not assigned to care for in a separate unit of a Colorado hospital. The defendant falsely and fraudulently told patients that she was conducting a “study” on the effectiveness of Patient-Controlled Analgesia (PCA) pumps, which deliver controlled substances to hospital patients to relieve pain on-demand when the patient pushes a button. The defendant then used a key to open the machine that secured the syringe of hydromorphone that was to be dispensed to the patient. The defendant removed a portion of the drug from the syringe, which she kept, then returned the syringe to the patient’s PCA. The defendant illegally obtained controlled substances in this way from three patients on four occasions.
When confronted by law enforcement regarding her actions, the defendant lied about the diversions and persisted in her false story that she was engaged in a study with a well-known university. The defendant engaged in obstructionist conduct by producing to law enforcement a false email that she stated came from a friend who asked her to participate in the research. The defendant created the false email herself using a fictitious email account she created in the name of this alleged friend.
