28 charges dropped in surgery tech’s hep C case in deal with prosecutors

28 charges dropped in surgery tech’s hep C case

DENVER — A federal judge has dismissed 28 charges against a surgery technician as part of an agreement with prosecutors in the case where the woman admitting to tampering with medications that resulted in three dozen people contracting hepatitis C.

Kristen Diane Parker was to be sentenced to 20 years in prison last month in a plea deal with prosecutors but a judge said it was not enough time. Parker renewed her guilty plea Feb. 5 and is expected to be sentenced Feb. 24 on five counts of tampering with a consumer product and five counts of obtaining a controlled substance by deceit or subterfuge.

A judge dismissed several related charges Thursday at the request of prosecutors.

Parker, who has hepatitis C, says she injected herself with painkiller-filled syringes and replaced them with ones filled with saline while she worked at Rose Medical Center in Denver and the Audubon Surgery Center in Colorado Springs.