A Grosse Pointe Park registered nurse, Travis Eskridge, pleaded guilty to tampering with a consumer product, specifically the Schedule II controlled substance fentanyl. The announcement was made by United States Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. Gorgon was joined in the announcement by Special Agent in Charge Ronne Malham, FDA Office of Criminal Investigations Chicago Field Office. Travis Eskridge, 53, of Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan, worked as a registered nurse in the emergency room at Ascension St. John Hospital. In his guilty plea Eskridge admitted that he tampered with vials containing fentanyl, a powerful narcotic pain reliever, which he knew were intended to be administered to patients in the hospital’s emergency room. Eskridge removed fentanyl from the vials, replaced fentanyl with another liquid, and returned the tampered vials to the locked drug storage system. Eskridge did this with reckless disregard for the dangerous risk to patients that resulted from such tampering. The defendant also admitted that he stole fentanyl vials as part of a pattern of thefts over several months. Nurse Eskridge was immediately removed from his position at Ascension St. John Hospital in August of 2022 when the hospital discovered the tampering and thefts.