Tianah K. Allen, employee at Hempstead assisted living facility, charged with forging painkiller prescriptions

An employee of a Hempstead assisted living facility used her position to try to obtain and sell Oxycodone by forging prescriptions for the powerful and highly addictive opioid painkillers using residents' names, court documents show.

Tianah K. Allen, 34, of Brooklyn, pleaded not guilty to third-degree attempted criminal possession of a controlled substance, forgery and other charges during her arraignment Friday morning in Hempstead.

Judge William Bodkin ordered Allen, a former medication supervisor at Island Assisted Living, released on her own recognizance. She is scheduled to return to court May 26.

“The defendant used her position managing medications at an assisted living facility to allegedly steal powerful narcotics using residents’ names,” Nassau District Attorney Anne Donnelly said in a statement. “When people place their parents or grandparents into long-term care, they should only have to worry about their loved ones’ comfort and well-being. The defendant’s alleged actions are a complete breach of that trust.”

Allen declined to comment following the arraignment.

Her attorney, Christopher Cox, of the Legal Aid Society of Nassau County, did not return a request to discuss the charges, but told Bodkin during Friday’s arraignment that his client was “confident that the allegations are unfounded.”

Administrators at Island Assisted Living did not return a request to discuss the allegations. Officials at the facility terminated Allen last year following an internal investigation into allegations that drugs had been mishandled, according to prosecutors.

Allen submitted false prescriptions for oxycodone in the name of patients “without a legitimate need” from a pharmacy on Feb. 25, 2025, and March 1, 2025, according to the felony complaint filed Friday in Nassau First District Court.

Allen “falsely made, completed or altered a written instrument which was purported to be … a prescription of a duly licensed physician,” according to the felony complaint.

If convicted, Allen faces up to 1 to 5½ years in prison.

Allen began working at Island Assisted Living in August 2024, according to prosecutors. The investigation that led to Allen’s arrest Thursday by Donnelly’s detectives was initiated on March 3 of last year when an Island Assisted Living administrator began an internal investigation into claims that some residents' prescriptions had been mishandled by staff.

Following the internal investigation, the defendant was fired and the administrator contacted the Hempstead Police Department.

A joint investigation that included the district attorney’s office, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Nassau police and other agencies found that Allen, also known as Tianah Eusebe, had submitted two prescriptions for 90 10mg oxycodone pills without authorization on Feb. 25, 2025. One of the prescriptions was written for a resident with a drug abuse history and could not be prescribed narcotics, prosecutors said. The other prescription was for a resident who died before the medication was delivered to the facility.

Allen was seen on surveillance video sorting through a delivery of residents’ medications, placing oxycodone pills into a brown paper bag, then taking the bag outside and placing it into her vehicle. Prosecutors said Allen was also recorded on surveillance video on a later date sorting through residents’ medications and placing oxycodone pills into an envelope. She put the envelope in her purse, then carried the purse out to her car.

The defendant was also seen on video forging a prescription for herself for 90 10mg oxycodone pills on March 1, 2025, and then submitting the prescription to the facility’s pharmacy.

“Healthcare professionals and caregivers are entrusted with protecting those in their care, not exploiting them for personal gain,” said Farhana Islam, the DEA special agent in charge of the New York division.