By Teresa Rochester
Ventura County Star
LOS ANGELES — A former paramedic supervisor from Fillmore who was accused of replacing narcotics in vials with saline solution was found guilty this week of tampering with a consumer product by a federal jury in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.
The jury found that John Allen Wilson, 49, tampered with numerous vials of morphine and an anti-seizure medicine in American Medical Response ambulances and in a storage safe, with ‘reckless disregard for the risk that another person would be placed in danger of death or bodily injury’ and extreme indifference.
The jury reached a decision Monday in the case heard before U.S. District Judge Margaret M. Morrow. Tampering with a consumer product was made a federal crime in 1983 after the deaths of seven people in Chicago, who were killed after taking cyanide-laced Tylenol that came from packages that had been tampered with.
‘In this case, it was interesting because Mr. Wilson was in fact entrusted with supplying vials of medicine to ambulances,’ federal prosecutor Abigail Evans said. ‘Clearly, the intent of the statute was to address cases where tampered medications could get out into the public realm.’ Prosecutors were not able to locate any particular person who suffered effects from the tampered vials, Evans said.
“However, there was evidence that some of those tampered vials were distributed among the ambulances and were most certainly administered to patients,” Evans said.
Federal public defender Anthony Eaglin, who represented Wilson, declined to comment.
In 2008, American Medical Response officials received an anonymous tip that Wilson was working while under the influence of controlled substances. Wilson, who was responsible for restocking medical supplies in fire stations, was suspended in August 2008.
In response, he contacted American Medical Response’s director, Dr. Charles Drehsen, to ask what was going on. When Drehsen speculated that it was because of drug use, Wilson admitted he had a drug problem and had been stealing morphine and midazolam for about ayear and tampering with the vials in ambulances and in the safe, according to court documents. He later was fired.
Midazolam, also known as Versed, is an antiseizure medication that masks the effects of morphine.
Drehsen immediately replaced all of the morphine and midazolam in the county’s ambulance service’s stock. The Ventura County Fire Department also replaced its stock as a safety precaution when the investigation came to light.
The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department was alerted and the case, which involved federal drug laws, was subsequently turned over to the FBI.
Tampered vials were found in the American Medical Respons evehicle Wilson used, as well as in his garage, where investigators also found syringes, caps and other evidence.
In Wilson’s office at work, more vials, tampered caps and syringes, as well as a concealed shredder that contained shredded log pages from drug safe log book were discovered, according to the prosecution’s trial memo.
The charge Wilson was convictedof carries a possible penalty of 57 to71 months in federal prison. A sentencing hearing will take place on Sept. 26. Wilson remains free on bond.
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