Attorney General John M. Formella announces that the Merrimack County Superior Court sentenced has Thomas John Ball Poirier (age 41) of Tilton, New Hampshire, to serve two consecutive terms of two-to-four-years in the New Hampshire State Prison for causing serious bodily injury to two children.

Poirier was formerly employed at Spaulding Academy and Family Services in Northfield, New Hampshire. Between July 3, 2020, and December 22, 2020, he stole medications that had been prescribed to Spaulding’s residents, some of whom were children under the age of 13.

Poirier then replaced the stolen medication with unknown substances that he colored with marker pens to make the unknown substances appear to be the children’s medications. Two of the children experienced severe behavioral changes as a reaction to having their prescriptions tampered with.

On November 21, 2022, Poirier pleaded guilty to First Degree Assault, a class A felony, Second Degree Assault, a class B felony, and Obtaining a Controlled Drug by Deceit, also a class B felony.

Poirier will serve the first two-to-four-year sentence, on the First-Degree Assault charge, for causing serious bodily injury to a child who was then twelve years old. Upon the expiration of that sentence, Poirier will serve a consecutive two-to-four-year sentence, on the Second-Degree Assault charge, for causing serious bodily injury to a second child, who was then sixteen years old. Upon the expiration of that sentence, Poirier will serve another fully suspended sentence of 3 ½ to 7 years for Obtaining a Controlled Drug by Deceit.

Attorney Andrew Yourell and Senior Assistant Attorney General Thomas T. Worboys, of the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, prosecuted this case. The case was investigated by the New Hampshire Department of Justice, the Northfield Police Department, the Tilton Police Department, and the United States Food and Drug Administration.

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. 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].