Nurse Found Guilty Of Stealing Rx Drugs

A registered nurse was found guilty Monday of stealing prescription drugs from an Ashland nursing home.

Ashland County Judge Robert Eaton sentenced Daniel J. Kulbacki, 35, to 18 months probation and 30 days in jail for stealing several pills of hydrocodone, a pain reliever, from a patient's prescription at the Court Manor Golden Living Center on Third Street West. As part of a plea agreement, Kulbacki was also found guilty of obstructing an officer.

Eaton described Kulbacki's problems as “self-induced.” “You made choices that are completely opposite that one might expect from the healing profession,” Eaton told Kulbacki.

Kulbacki's attorney, Joseph Rafferty Jr., said Kulbacki could lose his nursing license. “This is something he's standing up and taking responsibility for,” Rafferty said, adding that Kulbacki is cooperating with law enforcement in an effort to uncover other instances of prescription drug theft.

According to the criminal complaint, Kulbacki denied stealing prescription drugs when confronted by Ashland Police Department Lt. Greg BeBeau on June 9. But during a search, BeBeau discovered six hydrocodone pills and one tramadol pill, another pain reliever, in Kulbacki's socks.

“The defendant said that he has back pain once and a while from a previous car accident so he takes the pills when needed for pain,” the complaint states.

According to the complaint, Court Manor does not allow patients to keep their prescription drugs, which are kept in a lock box. Six pills were found missing from a 17-pill prescription after Kulbacki took the prescription from the lock box and delivered it to the social services department at the facility, according to the complaint.

A June 28 letter from Steven Rohland, an investigator with the state Department of Regulation and Licensing, requests a copy of the Kulbacki's criminal complaint as part of a Wisconsin Board of Nursing “drug diversion investigation.”

According to the state Department of Safety and Professional Services website, Kulbacki received his nursing license in 2008.