Wisconsin nurse sentenced for unlawful opioid prescribing

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An advanced practice nurse practitioner from Appleton, Wisconsin, was recently sentenced to 16 months in federal prison for the unlawful prescription of controlled substances.

Jessica Friday pleaded guilty on Aug. 13, 2025, to one count of distribution of controlled substances outside the usual course of professional practice and without a legitimate purpose. The charges stemmed from her unlawful prescribing of opioids between 2020 and 2024. According to court records, Friday issued prescriptions for opioids, including Oxycodone, during that time without a demonstration of medical necessity.

Friday issued the prescriptions based on an arrangement with her patients whereby the patients agreed to fill the unlawful prescriptions and provide half, or more, of the pills to Friday for her personal use.

Friday was aware, while she was engaging in this conduct, that the people to whom she was prescribing did not need the opiates, that they were vulnerable for reasons of their mental health and addiction and that they were selling at least of some of the pills they retained from Friday’s unlawful prescriptions.

In announcing his sentence, Judge J.P. Stadtmueller noted Friday’s serious abuse of a position of trust, the “staggering” volume of prescriptions Friday issued without medical need and the need to promote deterrence among medical professionals who may be tempted to engage in similar unlawful prescribing practices.

“Rather than providing legitimate care as a medical professional, this defendant fueled and supplied her own addiction. In the process, she simply became another drug dealer — another source of supply for putting highly addictive substances in the hands of others for no medical purpose,” said Brad Schimel, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.

After completing her 16-month prison sentence, Friday will serve a three-year term of supervised release.