Colorado pharmacy worker sentenced for stealing drugs

? A Colorado pharmacy employee was sentenced Tuesday to five years on probation for stealing chemotherapy drugs that eventually were sold to Kansas City-area pharmacists, including Robert Courtney.

As part of a plea agreement, Steuart W. Smith, of Denver, pleaded guilty in April to felony charges of unlawful sale of hospital drugs. Smith, who is not a pharmacist, admitted stealing prescription drugs and four chemotherapy drugs between 1996 and 2001 from the University of Colorado Hospital pharmacy where he worked.

Authorities said the drugs he was charged with stealing were worth between $120,000 and $200,000.

U.S. District Judge Ortrie D. Smith also ordered Steuart Smith to spend six months in home detention with a monitoring device, pay $50,000 in restitution to the hospital and a $25,000 fine, and complete 1,000 hours of community service.

Courtney pleaded guilty in February to diluting chemotherapy drugs.

Courtney, who remains jailed while awaiting sentencing, told investigators he bought stolen drugs for 10 years before he was caught diluting chemotherapy medications last year, according to court papers. His plea agreement requires him to disclose his own criminal activities and those of others.

Aram Paraghamian, of Westminster, Colo., was sentenced in July to three years of probation for being a middleman who moved stolen drugs. Some of those drugs ended up in Courtney’s pharmacy.