Man charged in theft of morphine patch

A man suspected of posing as a physician and stealing a morphine-administering patch from a patient at a Northwest Baltimore medical facility has been arrested on charges of assault and robbery, city police said yesterday.

Aleksandr Dzhanashvili, 31, of the first block of Stonehenge Circle in Pikesville was charged in a warrant with assault and robbery. He was arrested Wednesday by members of the Regional Warrant Apprehension Task Force shortly after he entered Harbor Hospital in South Baltimore, police said.

Dzhanashvili, who was a licensed physician in Russia, immigrated several years ago and failed to pass Maryland's medical licensing examination, police said. He is accused of entering a patient's room at Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center & Hospital, in the 2400 block of W. Belvedere Ave., on Nov. 30 and removing a morphine patch from a female patient, police said.

It was not known what the patch was used for after the theft or whether it was sold, police said.

Dzhanashvili was a technician in Sinai Hospital's emergency room from November 1995 to November 2002, hospital spokeswoman Jill Bloom said. "He left on his own," she said of his departure.

Richard Irwin