UPDATE: Former Columbia nurse charged with stealing fentanyl pleads not guilty

By Zimmer Communications
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A former University Hospital nurse in Columbia charged with felony stealing has waived arraignment and has pleaded not guilty in Boone County Circuit Court.

Boone County prosecutors have charged Amanda Woodard, who now lives in Oklahoma, with stealing, a class D felony.

Court documents allege that Woodard, while working as a nurse at University Hospital, gave patients fentanyl and then took the left-over fentanyl without permission for her own personal use.

The MUPD’s probable cause statement quotes Woodard as saying she would administer a proper dose of fentanyl to her patients, then would use a syringe to take the remaining amount from the vial for herself. The probable cause statement quotes Woodard as telling police she began taking the fentanyl in January and stopped in May. Court documents allege she stole 266 milliliters of fentanyl from 133 partially used vials.

Woodard is represented by defense attorney T.J. Kirsch of Jefferson City.