Pharmacy Tech Pleads Guilty to Stealing Drugs

A Maine pharmacy tech has pleaded guilty to stealing drugs and falsifying records, after he was caught on camera taking handfuls of pills, according to Central Maine.

Jon Ross Twadelle, 29, nabbed hydrocodone tablets from his pharmacy’s stock for at least 2 years, according to Central Maine. The theft, which took place at a Randolph Community Pharmacy, was discovered after an audit was done.

More than 40,000 hydrocodone/acetaminophen tablets were discovered missing between 2010 and October 2013, and although Twadelle confessed to taking 8 to 15 pills a day while working as a pharmacy technician, he denied stealing 40,029 pills, an investigator told Central Maine.

One surveillance video showed the pharmacy technician taking 10 handfuls of pills and placing them in his pocket. Then, he adjusted the inventory’s pill count by 800 so that the pills would be replenished, Central Maine reported.

Twadelle was sentenced to 2 years in jail, with all but 30 days suspended; however, he will see 2 years of probation, he was fined $400, he will have to pay $500 in restitution for the pills he took, and his pharmacy technician license has been permanently revoked. Last year, he agreed to pay a civil penalty of $1000 in a consent agreement, according to Central Maine.

He will not be charged with aggravated trafficking in scheduled drugs because he pleaded guilty to stealing the drugs and falsifying records, Central Maine reported.

The state Board of Pharmacy chastised Twadelle’s father, who owns Randolph Community Pharmacies, for “failing to establish and maintain effective controls against diversion of prescription drugs,” according to Central Maine.

Twadelle is currently taking medication for depression and anxiety, and he is seeing a mental health counselor, according to his attorney Ronald Schneider.

In a memo, Schneider stated that Twadelle experienced a head injury after crashing on his mountain bike, and he needed the drugs to self-medicate; he was not taking the drugs in an effort to get high.

Twadelle will report to jail in January.