Pubdate: Sat, 31 Oct 2015
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2015 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Authors: Marisa Gerber, Lisa Girion and James Queally

DOCTOR GUILTY IN THREE DRUG DEATHS

Hsiu- Ying Tseng Is Convicted of Murder for Prescribing Painkillers 
to Patients Who Overdosed.

A Rowland Heights doctor was convicted of second-degree murder Friday 
in connection with the overdose deaths of three patients, capping a 
landmark case that was closely watched by medical and legal 
professionals across the country.

Dr. Hsiu- Ying "Lisa" Tseng, who prosecutors say is the first doctor 
convicted of murder in the United States for recklessly prescribing 
drugs to patients, was accused of ignoring "red flags" about her 
prescribing habits, including the overdose of a patient in her clinic 
and nine phone calls in less than three years from authorities 
informing her that patients had died with drugs in their systems.

As the jury's decision was read, Tseng cocked her head and listened, 
showing no emotion.

"The message this case sends is, you can't hide behind a white lab 
coat and commit crimes," Deputy Dist. Atty. John Niedermann said 
afterward. "A lab coat and stethoscope are no shield."

April Rovero, whose son, Joey, died nearly six years ago after mixing 
alcohol with Xanax and oxycodone he had obtained from Tseng, said she 
believes the verdict will resonate throughout the country. "I really 
hope this sets a precedent that will allow other dirty doctors to be 
prosecuted," said Rovero, who blogged daily throughout the trial. "We 
feel that finally we have justice."

She warned against simply blaming addicts when physicians are in a 
position to know the harm their prescriptions can bring.

"Addicts and people seeking medications aren't in control," Rovero 
said. "Doctors are the ones who are supposed to push back. They have a duty."

Tseng's mother, who declined to give her first name, said through an 
interpreter that her daughter was deceived by drug-seeking patients.

"My daughter is someone who loved to save lives," she said, crying 
and shaking her fists outside the courthouse. "She always believed in 
her patients, and always tried to help her patients. She's innocent 
of all these accusations."

Jurors deliberated two weeks before reaching their verdicts. The 
eight-week trial included 77 witnesses and more than 250 pieces of 
evidence as the prosecution argued that Tseng had plenty of warnings 
that her prescription practices were dangerous.

Niedermann told jurors that Tseng agreed to give patients powerful 
narcotics without asking follow-up questions even after some- 
including an undercover agent posing as a patient-told her about 
their drug addictions.

"She wrote them a prescription for the very thing they're addicted 
to," Niedermanns aid.

"She shoved them over that cliff."

Tseng's defense lawyer portrayed the doctor as over worked and too 
trusting of her patients.

"She got in over her head," attorney Tracy Green told jurors.

Although the state's medical board had found Tseng, 45, in violation 
of some standards, Green said that didn't mean her client's actions 
were criminal.

"That' s what malpractice cases are about," Green said. "She did not 
murder people."

After Friday's verdict, Green said her client was shocked by the 
conviction and plans to appeal. She said prosecutors used a long list 
of charges involving other patients to unfairly portray Tseng as a 
reckless doctor responsible for the three overdose deaths.

The verdicts could have a terrible ripple effect, she said. Green 
said she has received several calls from cancer patients and others 
with terminal illnesses who said the prosecution of doctors like 
Tseng has led other physicians to limit the amount of powerful 
painkillers they prescribe, even to those who have a medical need for them.

"It's pretty hard to figure out who is an addict and who is not," Green said.

Tseng was one of only a handful of doctors across the country who 
have faced murder charges for prescribing painkillers that led to a 
patient's death. Last month, a Florida physician was acquitted of 
first-degree murder in a patient's fatal overdose.

Other doctors have faced lesser charges. In 2011, a Los Angeles 
County jury convicted Dr. Conrad Murray of involuntary manslaughter 
for giving pop legend Michael Jackson a surgical anesthetic that killed him.

The medical world kept a close eye on Tseng's trial. Some experts 
worried that a conviction would have a chilling effect on worried 
doctors and keep powerful painkillers from patients who need them.

Prosecutors charged Tseng with murder for the deaths of Vu Nguyen, 
28, of Lake Forest; Steven Ogle, 25, of Palm Desert; and Joey Rovero, 
21, an Arizona State University student who prosecutors say traveled 
more than 300 miles with friends from Tempe, Ariz., to obtain 
prescriptions from Tseng at her Rowland Heights clinic.

Tseng was also accused of prescribing drugs to people with no 
legitimate need for the medications and fraudulent prescribing for 
writing a man' s name on prescriptions so his wife could double her pill count.

The jury found Tseng guilty of more than a dozen illegal prescribing 
counts. Jurors hurriedly left the courthouse after the verdict 
without talking to reporters.

A 2010 Times investigation found that at least eight of Tseng's 
patients died of overdoses from the same type of drug she prescribed to them.

The investigation also found that Tseng's patients included at least 
three people who had been charged with dealing drugs and a fourth who 
was suspected by police of doing so.

In interviews with The Times, two others admitted dealing drugs 
prescribed by Tseng, and family members of several dead patients said 
they suspected their loved ones sold some of their prescription pills 
to finance their habits.

During the trial, Niedermann told jurors that the grandmother of one 
of Tseng's patients called the clinic and yelled at the doctor, 
demanding that she stop prescribing medication to her grandson. 
Another patient's father called the clinic in 2010, the prosecutor 
said, and made the same demand, calling Tseng a "drug pusher."

Tseng noted the call in medical records, including a reminder not to 
see the patient in the future.

During closing arguments, the prosecutor highlighted the testimony of 
Dr. Gene Tu- Tseng's husband who has also faced medical board discipline.

Tu testified that phone calls from coroner's officials informing 
Tseng that her patients had overdosed "didn't create an issue in the office."

The prosecutor argued that Tseng didn't care about her patients' 
treatment and sometimes referred to them as "druggies." For her, he 
said, it was about "dollars and cents."

Between 2007- the year Tseng joined the Rowland Heights clinic where 
her husband worked- and 2010, Niedermann said tax returns show that 
their office made $ 5 million.

"Why would somebody do this?" the prosecutor asked, glancing at 
Tseng. "Five million reasons."

Tseng's attorney argued that her client's actions weren't motivated 
by the money.

Although Tseng "could've practiced medicine better," Green said, 
Tseng cared about her patients and often explained to them that they 
didn't need the types of drugs they wanted.

"She's not just giving them out," Green said. "She's warning them how 
dangerous they are."

Toward the end of the trial, the prosecutor projected images of some 
of the victims - round-faced young men with similar shaggy haircuts- 
onto a screen.

"These are people's kids," Niedermann said.
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