By JOHN WHITTAKER

jwhittaker@post-journal.com

A year-long investigation into missing medication at Warren General Hospital has resulted in charges filed by the state Attorney General’s office against a Warren man.

Damion M. Wise, 39, was charged Thursday with two misdemeanor counts of intentional possession of a controlled substance by a person not registered and third-degree theft by unlawful taking – movable property. The charges have been waived for court. Bail was set at $25,000 unsecured by Magisterial District Judge Raymond Zydonik on Thursday during preliminary arraignment.

According to the Affidavit of Probable Cause filed by a narcotics agent with the state Attorney General’s office in Erie, the Attorney General’s office was contacted by Warren General Hospital’s compliance officer after the hospital pharmacy was found to be missing 1,000 controlled substance medications, mostly Adderall and Ritalin.

“Compliance Officer … reported that the medications were discovered missing during a routine audit,” the affidavit states. “Compliance officer … reported they were shocked to report that the missing medications were discovered to have been possibly taken by their pharmacy director. Damion Wise was reported as the pharmacy director.”

The hospital removed Wise from the position as pharmacy director due to his alleged involvement with the missing medications, according to the affidavit.

Wise’s replacement told the Attorney General’s office that a pharmacy technician was reviewing medications in the hospital pharmacy via their National Drug Code numbers that identify the drug manufacturer, distributor, specific type of product including drug strength and dosage and the product package size.

Medications within the hospital system are tracked further by a Controlled Substance Manager computer system that monitors inventory of controlled substances by using the NDC numbers to track use, inventory, expiration and when the substances are dispensed. The issue was discovered by a nurse who had a problem dispensing an Adderall medication to a patient when the barcode scanner didn’t work. When the medication was brought back to the pharmacy it was found to have two different NDC numbers. The hospital’s information technology department ruled out a technical issue that further pointed to theft.

A year-long investigation into missing medication at Warren General Hospital has resulted in charges filed by the state Attorney General’s office against a Warren man.

Damion M. Wise, 39, was charged Thursday with two misdemeanor counts of intentional possession of a controlled substance by a person not registered and third-degree theft by unlawful taking – movable property. The charges have been waived for court. Bail was set at $25,000 unsecured by Magisterial District Judge Raymond Zydonik on Thursday during preliminary arraignment.

According to the Affidavit of Probable Cause filed by a narcotics agent with the state Attorney General’s office in Erie, the Attorney General’s office was contacted by Warren General Hospital’s compliance officer after the hospital pharmacy was found to be missing 1,000 controlled substance medications, mostly Adderall and Ritalin. The value of the medication, according to the hospital, was $2,079.

“Compliance Officer … reported that the medications were discovered missing during a routine audit,” the affidavit states. “Compliance officer … reported they were shocked to report that the missing medications were discovered to have been possibly taken by their pharmacy director. Damion Wise was reported as the pharmacy director.”

The hospital removed Wise from the position as pharmacy director due to his alleged involvement with the missing medications, according to the affidavit. Wise’s replacement told the Attorney General’s office that a pharmacy technician was reviewing medications in the hospital pharmacy via their National Drug Code numbers that identify the drug manufacturer, distributor, specific type of product including drug strength and dosage and the product package size. Medications within the hospital system are tracked further by a Controlled Substance Manager computer system that monitors inventory of controlled substances by using the NDC numbers to track use, inventory, expiration and when the substances are dispensed. The issue was discovered by a nurse who had a problem dispensing an Adderall medication to a patient when the barcode scanner didn’t work. When the medication was brought back to the pharmacy it was found to have two different NDC numbers. The hospital’s information technology department ruled out a technical issue that further pointed to theft.

The hospital officials reviewed video during which they said Wise was “acting suspicious” in his handling of a 10 milligram Adderall bottle with 100 pills, placing it into a pharmacy bag before disappearing from the camera’s view.

“This behavior was reported to be very unusual behavior,” the affidavit states.

Hospital pharmacy officials allege Wise was adjusting medication to show it was expired and destroyed when the medication was not expired. Two people are required to be present when a controlled substance medication is destroyed, but a review of computer systems and video showed that Wise was marking medications as destroyed with no corroboration by a witness or via camera systems. Pharmacy employees also reported noticing the company that handles the hospital’s medication returns hadn’t been coming to the hospital as frequently. Wise was allegedly discovered expiring medications as soon as they were received, causing the facility to order more medication because they were being removed from inventory as soon as they arrived. Wise allegedly told the pharmacy technician he had made a clerical error and was trying to fix it.

“Pharmacy Technician … noted a lot of Adderall medications were destroyed and noted the hospital ordered over 400 Adderall tablets,” the affidavit states. “(She) reported she was alarmed because the hospital never uses that much Adderall, stating this amount was way over their normal usage. (She) reported 100 Adderall tablets would have been normal usage within this time period, not 400.”

The investigation led hospital employees to trace the alleged thefts back to 2023. Wise, according to the affidavit, was interviewed in November 2025 by the Attorney General’s office and said his last day of employment at the hospital was March 3, 2025, after being placed on leave at the end of February because of the investigation.

“Wise reported he wanted to be up front, honest and acknowledge involvement in the diversion of medications from the hospital pharmacy during his employment,” the affidavit states. “Wise reported his issues started when he began to take more and more of his prescribed Adderall medication. Wise cited personal information and stated he began to take more to keep up with demands of his job. Wise spoke of experiencing difficult life challenges and stated that is when he began to take more of his prescribed medication.”