{"id":426957,"date":"2026-10-13T21:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T21:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/426957\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T21:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T21:26:09","slug":"icu-nurse-accused-of-stealing-fentanyl-claimed-iv-alarm-was-going-off-police-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/426957\/","title":{"rendered":"ICU nurse accused of stealing fentanyl claimed IV alarm was going off, police say"},"content":{"rendered":"

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A former ICU nurse accused of taking fentanyl<\/a> from a critically ill patient\u2019s IV told investigators she was responding to an alarm, but the patient\u2019s significant other reported no alarm and questioned her actions, Port St. Lucie police said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Police shared new details about the investigation into Leslie Ann Pope, 54, of Jupiter, including that the alleged encounters occurred June 24 and 25 \u2014 months before her Oct. 8 arrest.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A family member\u2019s watch over a critically ill loved one led to the arrest of an ICU nurse accused of taking fentanyl from the patient\u2019s IV infusion at Cleveland Clinic Tradition Hospital, Port St. Lucie police said. (WPEC)<\/p>\n

Cleveland Clinic confirmed Tuesday that Pope no longer works for the hospital system.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe take these allegations very seriously. The individual no longer works with us, and we are fully cooperating with law enforcement,\u201d Cleveland Clinic said in a statement to CBS12 News. \u201cBecause this is an active investigation, we are unable to comment further at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police say the patient\u2019s significant other watched Pope use a syringe to withdraw fluid from a fentanyl IV bag at Cleveland Clinic Tradition Hospital, place the syringe in her pocket and leave. Pope was not assigned to care for the patient.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut again, she\u2019s not even assigned to that patient, so there was no initial justification for her to even be in that room at that time addressing that patient,\u201d said Brittany McNally, a public information officer for the Port St. Lucie Police Department.<\/p>\n

According to McNally, Pope said an alarm and what she described as an \u201cupstream occlusion\u201d required her to intervene with the IV equipment. The patient\u2019s significant other disputed the account of an alarm.<\/p>\n

The woman had experience working in a medical environment, which prompted her to question what she witnessed and report it to hospital staff, McNally said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe family member actually was well versed in the medical field and had a history of working in that environment, which caused her to raise questions and caused her to notify the chain of command at the hospital,\u201d McNally said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A family member\u2019s watch over a critically ill loved one led to the arrest of an ICU nurse accused of taking fentanyl from the patient\u2019s IV infusion at Cleveland Clinic Tradition Hospital, Port St. Lucie police said. (WPEC)<\/p>\n

After the first encounter, the woman requested a protective cap on the IV bag, according to police. Pope returned the following evening, and the woman intervened. Investigators previously said they could not establish whether additional medication was removed during that second encounter.<\/p>\n

The hospital conducted an internal investigation and notified the Florida Department of Health, which then notified Port St. Lucie police, McNally said. Police began their investigation in early August.<\/p>\n

The interview did not establish the exact dates the hospital notified the health department or the department notified police.<\/p>\n

McNally said her understanding was that Pope had worked at Tradition Hospital for about six months and had no known employee reprimands or prior concerns during that employment. Cleveland Clinic did not say when Pope\u2019s employment ended or whether she was dismissed.<\/p>\n

Police say Pope denied the allegations. Investigators have not established what she allegedly intended to do with the fentanyl.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to speculate what she could be using it for, whether it\u2019s personal or, you know, selling it,\u201d McNally said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have that information at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Lewis Nelson, dean of Florida Atlantic University\u2019s College of Medicine, told CBS12 News that hospitals generally have medication safeguards, including electronic tracking and observation of the disposal of unused medication. He emphasized that he was speaking generally and did not know the specifics of this case.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut in order to allow a nurse or anybody to do their job, there\u2019s going to have to be some vulnerabilities in the system,\u201d Nelson said.<\/p>\n

See also: Pickup truck chase ends with crash, police standoff in Boynton Beach<\/a><\/p>\n

Pope was arrested in Jupiter with assistance from the Palm Beach Marshals Task Force. She faces three felony charges: grand theft of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance without a prescription and fraudulently obtaining a controlled substance. She is out on bond.<\/p>\n

CBS12 News is awaiting the redacted arrest affidavit.<\/p>\n

The investigation remains ongoing. Police are asking anyone who believes they experienced similar circumstances to contact the department.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A former ICU nurse accused of taking fentanyl from a critically ill…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-426957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}