NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A former Yale nurse, who faced more than five years in prison, for stealing perhaps hundreds of vials of pain medication from a Yale fertility clinic she worked in, received a far shorter sentence on Tuesday.
Donna Monticone, 49, who pleaded guilty in March to stealing fentanyl intended for fertility patients, was ordered to serve three years of supervised release, four weekends of incarceration, and three months of home confinement.
"The judge exhibited great discretion in her ruling," said Josh Koskoff, an attorney with Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder. "She had a complicated case."
His law firm has been contacted by over 30 fertility patients, who were victims over several months when they experienced excruciating pain during procedures. That's because Monticone had extracted fentanyl and refilled those vials with saline, which many patients received last year.
"I think the judge really hit the nail on the head when she asked, rhetorically, how does their oversight, isn’t their safety net essentially said isn’t there like somebody else that’s also looking after drugs not just one person," Koskoff said.
Monticone had access to this medication because she was responsible for the inventory at the clinic.
One of the victims, who spoke at the sentencing, is an emergency room doctor, trying to conceive. She told Monticone: "You kicked us while we were down."
"There's still a lot of questions that need to be answered here and we’re gonna be looking to Yale for those answers," Koskoff said.
Monticone said she started using fentanyl because of stress over a broken marriage and an ex-husband with who she claims she is afraid to leave their three children. And the judge said that was a factor in her lenient sentence.
Koskoff says Yale's response will determine whether a lawsuit is filed on behalf of dozens of victims.
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