Crime

Feds: Nurse replaced liquid oxy with household cleaner

It is unclear if the cleaner was administered to a patient.

November 4, 2025

1 minute to read

A Massachusetts-based nurse pleaded not guilty Friday to a charge related to allegedly replacing a hospice patient’s oxycodone with a household cleaner.

Lori Robertson, of Salem, New Hampshire, worked at a long-term care and rehabilitation facility in Amesbury, according to court documents.

Around March 31, Robertson removed liquid oxycodone from a non-verbal hospice and dementia patient’s prescription bottle with a syringe and replaced it with a household cleaner, federal authorities allege.

It is not stated in the documents whether or not the cleaner was administered to the patient or how it was discovered that the Schedule II controlled substance had been replaced.

Robertson was federally charged with one count of tampering with a consumer product, according to court documents.

“Lori Robertson, with reckless disregard for the risk that another person would be placed in danger of death and bodily injury, and under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to such risk, did tamper with a consumer product that affected interstate commerce,” the charging documents state.

She was released from custody on probation with the conditions of not contacting victims or witnesses, not using alcohol or other substances, submitting to a drug test, and undergoing a substance abuse treatment program, according to court documents.

Robertson is set to reappear in court on Nov. 24 for an initial status conference.