Attorney General: Former employee sentenced for drug swap at Spaulding Academy

CONCORD — Thomas John Ball Poirier was sentenced to two consecutive terms of two to four years for causing serious bodily injury to two children on Tuesday, according to a press release from the Attorney General’s office. 

Poirier will serve his consecutive terms at the state prison in Merrimack County for his 2020 crime of stealing hundreds of pills and then replacing them with an unknown substance while employed at Spaulding Academy and Family Services in Northfield. The pills Poirier pocketed were methylphenidate, more commonly known under the brand name Ritalin, and are used to treat attention deficit disorder. After stealing the pills, Poirier colored the fakes with a magic marker to mimic the original medication.

Two child-aged victims of Poirier reacted negatively to the medication swap and had “severe behavioral changes” as a result of the tampering. 

The 41-year-old Tilton man was initially charged with first-degree assault on a person under 13, second-degree assault, abuse of facility patients, reckless conduct, obtaining a controlled drug by deceit and possession of a controlled drug. 

According to the Attorney General's Office, Poirier pleaded guilty to first degree assault, second degree assault and obtaining a controlled drug by deceit on Nov. 21, 2022. After his second two- to four-year term is served, Porier will serve a fully suspended sentence of three-and-a-half to seven years for obtaining a controlled drug by deceit. 

Spaulding Academy did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

“Under New Hampshire law, the Attorney General is responsible for the prosecution of health care facility employees charged with willful abuse, mistreatment or neglect of a patient,” wrote Michael Garrity of the Attorney General’s Office. “Health care facility employees suspected of abusing their patients should be reported to the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit [603-271-1246], your local police department, or the Department of Health and Human Services, Bureau of Elderly and Adult Services [800-949-0470].”