Judge Rejects Sentence For Hep C Surgery Tech

DENVER (AP) – A sentencing deal for the drug-addicted surgery technician who infected three dozen people with hepatitis C has been rejected.

A federal judge in Denver rejected the sentence Friday for Kristen Diane Parker. Parker was expected to get 20 years in prison for stealing syringes filled with a painkiller from operating carts at Rose Medical Center in Denver and the Audubon Surgery Center in Colorado Springs.

U.S. District Judge Robert E. Blackburn said the sentence “unreasonably” restriucted his sentencing prerogative and didn’t incorprate the deposition of the victims. Parker’s sentence was to be decided at a future hearing.

Some of the three dozen people infected with hepatitis C by a drug-addicted surgery technician’s dirty syringes were planning to speak at her sentencing hearing in federal court.

27-year-old Kristen Diane Parker, who has hepatitis C, admitted stealing syringes filled with a painkiller from operating carts at Rose Medical Center in Denver and the Audubon Surgery Center in Colorado Springs.

She told prosecutors she injected herself and replaced the stolen syringes with ones filled with saline. She says she meant to use clean replacement needles but got careless.

The 27-year-old pleaded guilty last year to tampering with a consumer product and obtaining a controlled substance by deceit or subterfuge.