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California Doctor Faces Murder Charge for Issuing Prescriptions Without Medical Need to Patients Who Died of Drug Overdose
A Los Angeles County doctor has been charged with second-degree murder for issuing prescriptions that led to the drug-overdose deaths of three patients in 2009. Hsiu-Ying “Lisa” Tseng, who co-operated a medical office in Rowland Heights, CA, since 2005, is also charged with “one felony count of prescribing drugs using fraud” and “20 felony counts of prescribing drugs without a legitimate purpose,” and is held in custody with bail set at $3 million as reported in a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) news release. Three of the prescription counts involve two of the patients who died and the remainder of the prescription counts involves victims who survived or prescriptions written for undercover officers, indicates the DEA statement. DEA began investigating Tseng’s practice in 2008 as a result of information reported by a pharmacy. Tseng’s DEA Certificate of Registration to prescribe CS was revoked by the DEA in 2010, and the Osteopathic Medical Board of California has moved to revoke her medical license. If convicted of the charges brought on March 5, 2012, Tseng faces a possible maximum state prison term of 45 years to life. Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley stated that prescribers “who knowingly over-prescribe drugs for no medical reason other than someone asks for the drugs and pays the doctor a staggering amount of money will be dealt with severely.”
