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Ex-medic pleads not guilty to stealing drugs

He was suspected after his partner thought he might be drunk, then found two morphine vials that appeared to be tampered with

By Mike Carter
The Seattle Times

SEATTLE — A former South King County paramedic has pleaded not guilty to three counts of tampering with consumer products for allegedly stealing morphine and other narcotics from drug vials on Medic One trucks and replacing them with other drugs.

Paul Ahrens is scheduled for trial Jan. 25 after his arraignment Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Brian Tsuchida in Seattle.

Ahrens came under investigation by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) after other paramedics discovered over a few weeks in November 2013 that several vials of the powerful narcotic painkiller — stored in locked safes on Medic One vehicles — appeared to have been tampered with. The plastic tops of several vials appeared to have been broken off and some of the rubber stoppers appeared to have been pierced, said South King County Medic One Chief John Herbert.

Herbert said an investigation turned up no evidence that any patient treated by Medic One paramedics had been harmed as a result of the alleged tampering.

Herbert told investigators that it was not unusual that one or two of the protective caps would be broken or fall off a drug vial every several months, but in this instance as many as nine vials of morphine and several vials of other narcotics, such as Versed — a short-acting painkiller that is 100 times more potent that morphine — had been damaged in just a few weeks.

Herbert turned two of the suspect morphine vials over to a doctor who oversees the Medic One program and he had them tested.

South King County Medic One is a taxpayer-funded public-safety operation that provides emergency-medical response to South King Country residents from eight locations, using specially equipped medic trucks and highly trained paramedics under the supervision of Harborview Medical Center, the University of Washington Medical Center and the Seattle Fire Department.

According to a complaint filed in federal court, the vials contained Phenergan and Benadryl, two nonnarcotic drugs whose effects might initially mimic the painkiller. Those drugs, however, would not provide patients with actual pain relief and could cause potentially deadly side effects, according to the charges.

Herbert, in an interview, said he opened an internal investigation using Medic One’s “robust documentation” of drugs dispensed during emergency responses. Based on that investigation, the department was able to pinpoint when the drugs were likely tampered with and who was assigned to that particular rescue vehicle at that time.

Ahrens and another paramedic were identified as having been on the Medic 12 truck stationed in Enumclaw during a shift when one of the vials was tampered with, according to the court documents.

“In tracking the paramedics with access to the tampered vials of morphine, Paul Ahrens was either working in a certain Medic One station the day of, or the day before when vials of morphine were turned in because the fact that plastic protective caps had been off,” according to the charges.

Suspicion increased, Herbert said, after an incident on Nov. 19, 2013, when Ahrens and his partner were dispatched from the Medic 12 station in Enumclaw to a nearby nursing home, where they had already been earlier in their shift. The charges allege that Ahrens had to ask his partner for turn-by-turn instructions to get there, and at the end of the call he drove the ambulance into tree branches and hedges alongside the road without seeming to notice.

His partner suspected he was drunk but could not smell alcohol on his breath, according to court documents.

Later that night, his partner found a paper towel in the trash with a blood stain “consistent with a vein puncture.” His partner checked the narcotics on the truck, and found two morphine vials that appeared to have been tampered with, according to charging documents.

Herbert said he confronted Ahrens on Nov. 24, and that the paramedic first denied any involvement with the tampered vials. Twenty minutes, later, however, Ahrens called the chief and said he was responsible for the missing drugs, according to the charges.

The charges Ahrens is facing carry a maximum prison sentence of up to 10 years.

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©2014 The Seattle Times

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