GREENFIELD — The former Baystate Franklin Medical Center nurse who admitted in January to stealing painkillers from the hospital for his own use was sentenced in federal court Thursday to two years probation and house arrest, with conditions.
U.S. District Court Judge Mark Mastroianni sentenced Daniel Herlocker, 41, of Brattleboro, Vermont, to two years probation, plus mandatory drug counseling and screenings. He also will lose his nursing license for that period.
Mastroianni’s decision reflects a lesser sentence than that recommended by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in a plea deal. U.S. Attorney Karen Goodwin asked for three years probation. Herlocker will also serve three months of house arrest, consistent with other, similar cases, Mastroianni ordered during the sentencing hearing in the Springfield federal court.
During an initial hearing last week, Mastroianni expressed deep concern for the possible consequences of Herlocker’s use of syringes to extract morphine and Dilaudid, powerful opioid painkillers, from the hospital’s automatic drug-dispensing machines, and ordered him jailed for a week while he made a sentencing decision.
Mastroianni again on Thursday made his concern known, but also said he had reviewed two other cases that dealt with similar crimes, the specifics of which could be considered relatively worse, to some extent.
“Beyond his addiction, Mr. Herlocker’s actions have involved people who had nothing to do with that, who were dragged into this in a state of unconsciousness because of their conditions,” he said.
He said that consideration was tempered by Herlocker’s struggle with addiction and the charitable work he had been doing to build homes for poor people in Rwanda, Africa, for years before the onset of his addiction.
“By all accounts you’ve done a lot of good for a lot of people,” he said.
Mastroianni opted not to level any sort of fine against Herlocker, because he did not want money to be taken away from Herlocker’s charity, Ishunti in Rwanda.