FITCHBURG — According to US Attorney Leah Foley, a Gardner man has agreed to plead guilty to replacing opioids intended for patients in hospice and memory care at a Fitchburg health-care facility.
Andrew Milgrim, 37, agreed to plead guilty to one count of tampering with a consumer product, according to the release from Foley’s office. He will make an initial court appearance, waive indictment and plead to the Information at a date to be set by US District Court Judge Margaret R. Guzman in Worcester.
According to court documents, Milgrim worked as a licensed practical nurse in a long-term care and rehabilitation facility in Fitchburg that provided long-term chronic, hospice, and post-acute care to patients.
From around September 2024 and continuing through February 2025, court filings said that Milgrim allegedly diverted Oxycodone from patients in the skilled nursing and dementia care units of the Fitchburg health care facility.
The charging documents allege that he took the “as needed” pills prescribed to patients. Milgrim would allegedly consume the pills himself and replace the pills with others that looked similar. He allegedly began taking 5 mg Oxycodone pills from various patients and replacing the diverted pills with an allergy medication, Loratadine, whose appearance resembled that of the 5 mg Oxycodone pills. In or around January 2025, Milgrim also allegedly diverted 10 mg Oxycodone pills from an elderly patient in the locked unit, and replaced those pills with the thyroid medication, Levothyroxine.
The release stated that the charge of tampering with a consumer product provides for a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
The announcement was made on Monday by US Attorney Leah B. Foley; Roberto Coviello, Special Agent in Charge, Health and Human Services-Office of Inspector General; Michael Ahearn, Acting Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General; and Robert H. Goldstein, MD, PhD, Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kaitlin Brown is prosecuting the case.
The details contained in the charging document are allegations. The defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in the court of law.
-Office of US Attorney Leah Foley contributed to this article.