Nurse Pleads Not Guilty in Illegal Painkiller Prescription Case

As Massachusetts seeks to stymie the flow of drugs fueling its opioid abuse epidemic, the state announced charges Wednesday for a Dorchester nurse practitioner accused of illegally prescribing more than 10,000 painkillers.

According to state Attorney General Maura Healey's office, Roberta Regan, 51, was arraigned Wednesday in Suffolk Superior Court on six counts of illegally prescribing Oxycodone. She was indicted by a Statewide Grand Jury on June 30, charged with 10 counts of unlawfully prescribing Oxycodone, one count of unlawfully prescribing Lorazepam and one count of unlawfully prescribing Clonazepam. The charges include three different counties.

Reagan pleaded non guilty at the arraignment Wednesday, and was released on the condition she not consume drugs or alcohol. She will be subjected to random drug screenings, on the judge's orders.

Reagen was fired from her job as nurse practitioner at MetroWest Medical Center for misusing hospital prescription pads, according to the AG's office. She was subsequently investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, which "revealed she had written 119 prescriptions over a one-year period for a total of 10,007 tablets and of those only 12 were prescribed to legitimate patients at the medical center," according to the release.

The DEA's investigation showed Regan allegedly wrote the prescriptions for family members and friends, often receiving a portion of the pills back in exchange for writing the prescription, the AG's office release said.

"While some of the people who received the illegal prescriptions used the pills to treat various levels of pain, they were never patients of Regan’s and many allegedly developed some level of addiction," the release said.

Reagen will be arraigned in Norfolk and Plymouth Superior Court, respectively, on six of the 11 counts later this month and early next. She is scheduled to return to Suffolk Superior Court or a pre-trial conference on Sept. 13.