ICU nurse accused of stealing fentanyl claimed IV alarm was going off, police say

A former ICU nurse accused of taking fentanyl from a critically ill patient’s IV told investigators she was responding to an alarm, but the patient’s significant other reported no alarm and questioned her actions, Port St. Lucie police said Tuesday.

Police shared new details about the investigation into Leslie Ann Pope, 54, of Jupiter, including that the alleged encounters occurred June 24 and 25 — months before her Oct. 8 arrest.

Cleveland Clinic confirmed Tuesday that Pope no longer works for the hospital system.

“We take these allegations very seriously. The individual no longer works with us, and we are fully cooperating with law enforcement,” Cleveland Clinic said in a statement to CBS12 News. “Because this is an active investigation, we are unable to comment further at this time.”

Police say the patient’s 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.

“But again, she’s 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,” said Brittany McNally, a public information officer for the Port St. Lucie Police Department.

According to McNally, Pope said an alarm and what she described as an “upstream occlusion” required her to intervene with the IV equipment. The patient’s significant other disputed the account of an alarm.

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.

“The 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,” McNally said.

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.

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.

The interview did not establish the exact dates the hospital notified the health department or the department notified police.

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’s employment ended or whether she was dismissed.

Police say Pope denied the allegations. Investigators have not established what she allegedly intended to do with the fentanyl.

“We don’t want to speculate what she could be using it for, whether it’s personal or, you know, selling it,” McNally said. “We don’t have that information at this point.”

Dr. Lewis Nelson, dean of Florida Atlantic University’s 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.

“But in order to allow a nurse or anybody to do their job, there’s going to have to be some vulnerabilities in the system,” Nelson said.

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.

2 posted on 10/15/2026 1:51:56 PM PDT by Magnum44 (...against all enemies, foreign and domestic... )

“Police say the patient’s 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.” She needed just a little.

3 posted on 10/15/2026 1:53:12 PM PDT by kawhill (Dywedwch + Add translation Welsh-English dictionary 'Tell Us')

Faces of meth...

or in this case, fentanyl

I can’t read “Port St. Lucie, FL” without hearing it in my head like Rush always pronounced it. LOL

5 posted on 10/15/2026 2:08:16 PM PDT by Tell It Right (1 Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)

Looks like her preferred drug is meth.

Meth head, opiate abuser face....out of the 4 people I knew who were stealing opiates, they ALL had at least one outstanding, over the top feature, either different type of garb, or personality trait, or over the top makeup, or other tha drug addiction (gambling), in hindsight, Easy to spot ...

7 posted on 10/15/2026 2:51:55 PM PDT by Getready (Wisdom is more valuable than gold and harder to find.)

“The alarm was going off”

That’s what they usually say. Much worse is giving a patient in pain saline and taking the morphine or fentanyl for personal use.

Very important to treat opioids like Fort Knox treats gold.

8 posted on 10/15/2026 2:57:46 PM PDT by Jim Noble (Assez de mensonges et des phrases)

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