Eastern Iowa Occupational Therapist Convicted in Drug Tampering Scheme

An Eastern Iowa occupational therapist who tampered with an assisted living resident's prescription pain medication pled guilty on May 12, 2026, in federal court in Cedar Rapids. Eric Leo Newsom, age 34, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was convicted of one count of tampering and attempting to tamper with a consumer product.

In a plea agreement, Newsom admitted he was a licensed occupational therapist within the State of Iowa. Newsom owned and operated a company through which he provided occupational therapy services to patients in Eastern Iowa.

In November 2024, Newsom began diverting narcotics from his current and former patients. One of his former patients was elderly, had cancer, required medication to control pain, and lived in a Cedar Rapids assisted living facility. On March 19, 2025, the former patient began receiving palliative hospice care. On March 24, 2025, Newsom picked up the former patient's hydrocodone tablets from an area pharmacy and replaced the former patient's hydrocodone tablets with zinc tablets. Before putting the zinc tablets into the hydrocodone container, Newsom added score marks to the zinc tablets to make them appear similar to hydrocodone tablets. As a result, from March 24, 2025, until March 26, 2025, the former patient did not have her narcotic pain medication. The former patient died on March 28, 2025.

Newsom also admitted burglarizing the apartment of another resident of an assisted living facility while seeking narcotics. Newsom admitted to stealing narcotics from two sisters who lived in different apartments at the same assisted living facility in Cedar Rapids while the sisters were in the facility's gym for therapy.

Sentencing before United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams will be set after a presentence report is prepared. Newsom remains free on bond previously set pending sentencing. Newsom faces a possible maximum sentence of ten years' imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and three years of supervised release following any imprisonment.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Timothy L. Vavricek and was investigated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General and the Iowa Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.

Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.plLinks to other government and non-government sites will typically appear with the "external link" icon to indicate that you are leaving the Department of Justice website when you click the link..

The case file number is 25-CR-92.

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