Judge Denies Compassionate Release Request From Man That Infected 46 With Hepatitis C

A federal judge denied a request for compassionate release from a former traveling medical technician who stole drugs and infected more than 40 patients with hepatitis C, law enforcement said Thursday.

David Kwiatkowski, 41, a medical technician who worked at hospitals in at least eight states, was sentenced in 2013 to 39 years in prison for stealing painkillers and replacing them with saline-filled syringes tainted with his own blood.

Patients then received injections of saline that had been tainted by his blood. 46 people became infected with the same strain of hepatitis C virus, a viral infection that attacks the liver, as Kwiatkowski. One of those patients, a resident of Kansas, later died.

Despite being fired from several jobs over drug allegations, he worked as a cardiac technologist in 18 hospitals across seven states before being hired in New Hampshire in 2011.

Kwiatkowski’s actions were discovered after law enforcement personnel in New Hampshire investigated an outbreak of hepatitis C at Exeter Hospital in 2012.

According to court documents, Kwiatkowski would take syringes containing fentanyl intended for surgical patients and inject himself, “causing them to become tainted with his infected blood, before filling them with saline and then replacing them for use in the medical procedure.”

He was arrested in July of 2012 and pleaded guilty in August of 2013 to eight counts of tampering with a consumer product and eight counts of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud.

He was sentenced to serve 39 years in prison in December of 2013.

In January, Kwiatkowski filed a motion requesting compassionate release from prison, alleging his medical conditions placed him at high risk of becoming severely ill if he became infected with COVID-19.

At a hearing Thursday in federal court in Concord, U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante denied Kwiatkowski’s motion.

In rejecting the request, Judge Laplante noted the defendant’s crime had been “extremely cruel and callous” and that the risk posed by COVID-19 did not justify releasing the defendant after he served approximately nine years of his 39-year sentence.

“I am grateful that the Court rejected this defendant’s effort to avoid serving his justly-imposed prison sentence,” said Acting U.S. Attorney John Farley in a statement. “This defendant damaged the lives of dozens of victims in multiple states and caused a significant public health crisis. It would have been a grave injustice if this defendant had been released from prison while so many of his victims continue to endure the health consequences of his unlawful and cruel actions.”