Five years after an Iowa nurse was convicted of drug-related crimes, he has agreed to surrender his Controlled Substances Act registration to the Iowa Board of Pharmacy.
The disciplinary case is one of several in which the board has recently sanctioned Iowa-licensed pharmacists for criminal offenses, drug-dispensing errors and other violations.
State records indicate that in 2020, advanced registered nurse practitioner Robbie Robinson of Sioux City was criminally charged with 10 counts of obtaining a prescription drug by fraud.
He later pleaded guilty to one count of tampering with records, a charge that was tied to allegations that he wrote a prescription for Bactrim for his girlfriend; one count of fraudulent practices in the third degree, for allegedly billing the cost of the drug to her insurance, and one count of obtaining a prescription drug by fraud, for allegedly writing a prescription for his girlfriend without the authority to do so.
In January 2021, the Iowa Board of Nursing charged Robinson with prescribing or dispensing drugs to individuals who either weren’t patients or were outside his area of specialty. The board also charged Robinson with prescribing or dispensing drugs without adequately documenting the work or without evaluating the patient.
As a result of those charges, the board allowed Robinson to keep his nursing license subject to one year of probation.
In June 2022, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a ruling affirming that Robinson was excluded from participation in Medicare, Medicaid and all federal health care programs for five years. During his exclusion, DHHS ruled, Robinson could not use his federal Drug Enforcement Administration registration, which he then surrendered.
Under Iowa law, Robinson cannot maintain an Iowa Controlled Substances Act registration without a federal DEA registration and so, in July 2025, Robinson agreed to surrender his CSA registration to the Iowa Board of Pharmacy.
In its September 2025 decision agreeing to the registration surrender, the board did not indicate why the action was being taken five years after Robinson’s arrest.
Other Iowa Board of Pharmacy licensees recently sanctioned include:
— Benjamin Grote, who has agreed to refrain from practicing pharmacy in Iowa. According to the board, Grote also maintains a Nebraska pharmacist license that is currently under probation for reasons the Iowa board has not disclosed.
The Iowa board alleges Grote is “currently unable to practice pursuant to Iowa Administrative Code 504.2(4),” which is a state regulation that speaks to professional misconduct related to a licensee’s excessive use of alcohol or drugs.
According to the board, in order to meet its interest in protecting the public, Grote has agreed to suspend his practice in Iowa pending a board review of his ability to practice safely. The board has opted not to publicly disclose the city or pharmacy where Grote has practiced.
While the Iowa board has disclosed very little information about the allegations against Grote, Nebraska state licensing officials have publicly detailed a long history of arrests and disciplinary actions in which Grote has been involved.
Records from the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services indicate that in 2007 Grote engaged in unprofessional conduct when he sent a sexually suggestive email to “a young female co-worker.”
Grote was also accused of making inappropriate sexual inquiries of a young, female job applicant, asking about her drinking habits and whether she and her partner used condoms. He allegedly presented the applicant with a box of condoms at the conclusion of the job interview. As a result of those allegations, Nebraska officials placed Grote’s license on probation for five years.
In 2019, the Nebraska board suspended Grote’s license for 12 months after he was allegedly convicted of third-offense drunken driving in Iowa.
In 2021, the state of Nebraska reinstated Grote’s license subject to one year of probation that required him to abstain from alcohol.
In 2022, Nebraska officials extended Grote’s probation, censured him and fined him $500 after he was allegedly arrested again for third-offense drunken driving. In July 2025, Nebraska officials suspended Grote’s pharmacy license for 30 days and fined him $2,000, alleging he had tested positive for the use of alcohol.
In August 2025, Grote allegedly participated in a substance abuse assessment in which he admitted consuming eight “shooters” — a term typically used to describe 50-milliliter bottles of alcohol — per day since his license was suspended.
That same month, Grote was allegedly pulled over driving north in the southbound lanes of a highway in Platte County, Nebraska. Police alleged he had a blood-alcohol level that was three times the legal limit, and they charged him with felony fifth-offense drunken driving, an open-container violation and other offenses. Those criminal charges are still pending, according to state records.
— Robert Rehal, who practices in Sioux City, was charged by the board with dispensing an incorrect medication in May 2024 by failing to “verify the correct medication was in the correct bag for the correct patient.”
The board has opted not to publicly disclose the nature of the medication, the name of the pharmacy where the drugs were dispensed, or the patient outcome. Rehal agreed to have his license placed on probation for one year.
— Kerry Hogan, who practices in Urbandale, was charged by the board with dispensing an incorrect prescription drug to a patient in April 2024 by filling two separate prescription bottles with the same medication rather than providing the two “separate and distinct medications the patient had been prescribed.”
The board has opted not to publicly disclose the nature of the medications, the name of the pharmacy where the drugs were dispensed, or the patient outcome. Hogan was issued a warning and fined $1,000.
— Kindra Kruse, who has been charged by the board with diverting prescription drugs from a pharmacy for her personal use or for distribution. The board alleges that four years ago, in 2021, it fielded a complaint alleging Kruse had diverted controlled substances from the pharmacy where she worked.
After a board investigation, Kruse agreed to enroll in the Iowa Monitoring Program for Pharmacy Professionals, but then failed to cooperate with the terms of the program and surrendered her license in January 2022. In June 2024, Kruse applied for, and was granted, reinstatement of her pharmacist’s license and was ordered to comply with all provisions of disciplinary probation.
The board alleges Kruse has not complied with all provisions of her probation. Kruse has agreed to voluntarily surrender her license. The board has not disclosed the city or the pharmacy where Kruse has practiced.
