A former Oregon ICU nurse accused of secretly draining patients’ fentanyl and replacing it with ordinary tap water still has not faced a jury — and a fresh fight over her old hospital’s own infection records just pushed her long-delayed trial back again.
Dani Marie Schofield, 36, worked in the intensive care unit at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center in Medford, Oregon, until she was fired in July 2023. A Jackson County grand jury indicted her in June 2024 on 44 counts of felony second-degree assault under Oregon’s Measure 11, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence for each count. Prosecutors allege that between July 2022 and July 2023, Schofield diverted fentanyl meant for 44 patients in her care and replaced it with non-sterile tap water, triggering a wave of bloodstream and central-line infections. Sixteen of those 44 patients later died. Schofield has pleaded not guilty and remains free on pretrial release after posting $400,000 toward a $4 million bail.
Two years, three judges, and a case that keeps sliding
More than two years after her indictment, Schofield’s case still hasn’t reached a jury. A trial once tentatively set for this month fell off the calendar again amid an unresolved fight over evidence. The case has also become a small legal drama of its own: Jackson County District Attorney Patrick Green formally objected this summer after the defense succeeded in getting a third judge removed from the case, calling it “judge shopping” that Oregon law was written to prevent. A retired judge, Senior Judge Lorenzo Mejia, is now hearing the case in a pro tem capacity.
The fight over infection records
At a September 9 hearing, attorneys for Asante and the Oregon Health Authority asked Judge Mejia to quash a defense subpoena seeking broader hospital and state data on central-line infections during the indictment period. Schofield’s defense attorney, Kristen Winemiller, argued the records are directly relevant to the case: Asante reported only 22 central-line infections to the Oregon Health Authority during the window covered by the indictment, even though Schofield is accused of causing 44. Asante’s attorney and an Oregon Health Authority attorney countered that the subpoena is an overly broad “fishing expedition” that would burden the hospital and violate the confidentiality of patients who aren’t part of the case. Judge Mejia didn’t rule outright — he gave the defense three weeks to narrow the subpoena, Asante and the state 21 days after that to respond, and set the next status hearing for October 14.
I’ve pulled controlled substances from a Pyxis station more times than I can count, and every pull is logged, witnessed, and reconciled against a patient’s actual order. That system exists because diversion doesn’t just hurt the nurse who gets caught — it hurts every patient whose pain medication is supposed to be real. If your unit’s waste-and-witness process feels like busywork some nights, this case is the reason it isn’t. Coworkers reportedly flagged concerns about Schofield as early as 2022, more than a year before she was fired. If something looks off with how a colleague handles controlled substances, report it up the chain the same day — not after it becomes a pattern someone else has to untangle.
A hospital facing hundreds of millions in claims
Asante itself is now the target of a wave of civil litigation separate from Schofield’s criminal case. Multiple wrongful-death and injury lawsuits filed by patients and families allege the hospital ignored early warning signs and failed to properly supervise Schofield, with total claims against the health system reported to exceed $300 million. Those civil cases are proceeding on their own timeline and don’t depend on the outcome of Schofield’s criminal trial, which itself now has no confirmed start date beyond the October 14 status check.