Rocky Allen, surgical tech with HIV who stole syringe, sentenced to 6-1/2 years in prison

A federal judge sentenced former surgical technologist Rocky Allen to 6-1/2 years in prison Monday for his theft of a syringe filled with powerful painkillers from Swedish Medical Center in Englewood.

“You got multiple, multiple chances to step away,” U.S. District Judge Raymond Moore told Allen moments before imposing the sentence.

Allen and his lawyer, Timothy O’Hara, an assistant public defender, had sought a sentence of 2-1/2 years in prison. O’Hara argued his client had not actually infected anyone despite a health scare prompted when Swedish warned 2,400 patients to seek medical testing because Allen was HIV positive.

Allen became addicted to drugs to cope with the pain of post traumatic stress disorder caused by sexual abuse that began when he was 3 years old, as well as by the horrors he experienced when he was a surgical tech while deployed as a Navy corpsman in Afghanistan, O’Hara said during the hearing.

Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/2016/11/07/rocky-allen-surgical-tech-sentenced-prison/