Kristen Diane Parker, the surgery technician who stole hospital sedatives and apparently infected dozens of patients with hepatitis C by putting dirty needles back onto trays, pleaded guilty Friday to federal charges of tampering and theft.
Parker, 26, faces sentencing in December for 10 of the 38 counts against her. She cried quietly in court as she declared herself guilty, and she pledged cooperation with investigators and victims as part of her plea bargain. Remaining charges will be dismissed, and prosecutors are recommending a 20-year prison sentence.
Parker’s attorney, Gregory Graf, said she was “devastated” and accepted full responsibility for infecting surgery patients at Rose Medical Center, where she worked. “She’s been in constant tears since she learned someone tested positive” for hepatitis C with DNA linked to Parker, Graf said.
U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn ordered Parker to remain in federal custody until her sentencing.
One victim who was told he contracted hepatitis C from Parker’s tampering said the 20-year sentence proposed by the government is not enough.
“I feel she should have got life for what she did,” said Crosby Powell, 71, who said his back surgery in February at Rose is the origin of his hepatitis C. Powell said Friday that three doctors have told him the treatment for hepatitis C, interferon, “would kill him quicker” than the disease itself.
“She has effectively ruined the lives of so many people,” Powell said.
The state health department says 27 hepatitis C cases may be linked to Parker, including 26 at Rose and one at Audubon Surgery Center in Colorado Springs, where Parker worked after she was fired for drug theft at Rose. Audubon officials say further testing will prove their case is not related to Parker.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jaime Pena said after Blackburn accepted Parker’s plea that the outcome is “appropriate.” Asked whether there would be more charges against Parker related to victim harm, Pena would say only that the plea deal requires Parker to submit to ongoing blood tests and share medical information with victims.
Graf said further charges would be “double jeopardy,” because the plea covers all of Parker’s actions.
Rose Medical Center, which faces potential victim lawsuits later this year, issued a statement saying it “greatly appreciates the hard work of local police, federal agents and the U.S. Attorney’s office in pursuing the case against Kristen Parker and prosecuting her for her crimes.”
Parker was initially charged in July with 42 counts of tampering with a consumer product and obtaining a controlled drug by deceit. She has been held since her arrest in July.
Parker said in interviews with police and federal investigators that she had stolen the powerful sedative fentanyl while working as a surgery technician at Rose and Audubon. She said she took syringes of fentanyl from surgery carts she was preparing or that had been left alone in surgical suites. She then used the drugs on herself, refilled the syringes with saline solution and put the dirty syringes back on surgery carts for use on patients.
Graf said Friday that Parker was a “drug addict, but not of her own choosing,” and that she had become addicted to painkillers after a teenage car accident.
Parker has claimed she didn’t know she had a communicable case of hepatitis C at the time she contaminated the needles, though hospital officials have said they informed her she appeared to have hepatitis C during employment interviews. Federal discrimination law prohibits employers from barring hepatitis C carriers from working in health care or other settings, as long as they take normal medical precautions.
Rose and Audubon asked nearly 6,000 surgery patients to seek hepatitis C testing after learning of Parker’s actions. Federal prosecutors said in late August that 35 patient infections could be attributed to Parker. The state says 16 of those positive cases have now been matched more definitively to Parker through lengthy DNA testing.
Graf said it was the arrival of 15 positive DNA matches in the past week that pushed Parker toward a plea bargain with the government.
Michael Booth: 303-954-1686 or mbooth@denverpost.com
