Surgery tech pleads not guilty to stealing meds

A former surgery technician has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of stealing painkillers intended for patients at a Colorado hospital.

Twenty-eight-year-old Rocky Allen entered his plea Friday. He’s charged with tampering with a consumer product and obtaining a controlled substance by deceit.

Prosecutors say he took syringes filled with painkillers at Swedish Medical Center in the Denver suburb of Englewood and replaced them with some other substance. That substance hasn’t been disclosed.

Swedish asked about 2,900 people who had been patients there to be tested for hepatitis and HIV. John C. Lincoln Medical Center in Phoenix, where Allen previously worked, also offered testing.

Allen’s attorneys asked the judge to set bail for his release, but prosecutors asked that he be held without bail.