CONCORD — Attorney General John M. Formella announces that a Merrimack County Superior Court judge has sentenced Thomas John Ball Poirier, 41, of Tilton, to two consecutive 2-4 State Prison terms for causing serious bodily injury to two children.

Poirier was formerly employed at Spaulding Academy and Family Services in Northfield. Between July 3, 2020, and Dec. 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 Nov. 21, 2022, Poirier pleaded guilty to one count of first degree assault, a Class A felony, along with one count each of second degree assault and obtaining a controlled drug by deceit, both Class B felonies.

Poirier will serve the first 2-4 year sentence on the first degree assault charge, for causing serious bodily injury to a child who was then 12 years old.

Upon the expiration of that sentence, Poirier will serve another 2-4 year sentence on the second-degree assault charge, which accuses him of causing serious bodily injury to a then-16-year-old individual.

Upon the expiration of that sentence, Poirier will serve a sentence of 3 1/2 to 7 years, all suspended, 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 at 271-1246, a local police department, or the Department of Health and Human Services, Bureau of Elderly and Adult Services, at 800-949-0470.

–InDepthNH