A doctor accused of running a prescription pain medication mill out of a basement office in Queens was charged with manslaughter on Thursday in the deaths of two former patients.
John Marshall Mantel for The New York Times
Dr. Stan Xuhui Li, center, in court Thursday. Dr. Li is charged with manslaughter for prescribing pain medicine for medically unsound reasons to 20 patients. Seven later died from overdoses.
An indictment filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan accused the doctor, Stan Xuhui Li, of prescribing pain medicine for medically unsound reasons to 20 patients, seven of whom died from overdoses.
Joseph Haeg, 37, and Nicholas Rappold, 21, the two patients whose deaths led to the manslaughter charges, had visited Dr. Li within three days of their deaths, and the pill bottles were found next to their bodies, prosecutors said.
Mr. Haeg had received 15 prescriptions from Dr. Li in the three months before his death in December 2009, and more than 500 pills of controlled substances in his last month, according to court records.
During Mr. Rappold’s last visit with Dr. Li, he received prescriptions for Xanax and oxycodone. He was found dead in his parked car in Queens in September 2010, and the cause of death was acute intoxication by the combined effects of Xanax and oxycodone, according to court records.
Bridget G. Brennan, New York City’s special narcotics prosecutor, said her office was not aware of any other cases in which a physician was charged with homicide under New York State law in the death of a patient. She said her office took the unusual step in part because Dr. Li’s prescriptions could be proved to be the cause of the deaths, and because he ignored obvious signs of his patients’ deteriorating health.
“Dr. Li flouted the fundamental principle in medicine: first do no harm,” Ms. Brennan said. “He jeopardized lives by repeatedly prescribing dangerous controlled substances and narcotic drugs for cash, not medical need.”
Prosecutors also said that Dr. Li, 58, prescribed controlled substances to another man, David Laffer, last year, just one week before Mr. Laffer fatally shot four people while stealing thousands of pain pills from a pharmacy in Medford, N.Y. Dr. Li has not been charged in that episode.
Dr. Li was arrested last year and charged with criminal sale of a prescription for a controlled substance and reckless endangerment in the death of Michael Cornetta, 40, who overdosed in November 2010. Dr. Li’s license to practice medicine was suspended in January.
He was also charged on Thursday with several counts related to making false insurance claims and altering patient records that he supplied to the state’s Office of Professional Medical Conduct, which is responsible for physician discipline.
Dr. Li had been free on bail since shortly after his arrest last year. He was rearrested near his home in Hamilton, N.J., on Nov. 27. He appeared in court wearing a blue plaid shirt and pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
His lawyer, Raymond W. Belair, said Dr. Li would fight the charges and try to keep his medical license. He described Dr. Li as a “careful and caring physician” who should not be held responsible if his patients were taking doses in excess of the prescribed levels or “doctor shopping” to get more prescriptions.
“Everything that has taken place here has taken place in the context of a pain-management situation,” Mr. Belair said in court.
Justice Michael R. Sonberg ordered Dr. Li held in bail of $750,000 in bond or $250,000 in cash.
Dr. Li worked as an anesthesiologist in New Jersey, but on weekends prescribed hundreds of pain pills from a building in Flushing. Patients would line up around the corner, be given numbers as they entered and then be called by number rather than by name, prosecutors said.
Charlotte Fishman, an assistant district attorney, said in court that Dr. Li had collected more than $450,000 in cash from selling prescriptions over the two years before his arrest.
“He literally filled his pockets with money on those weekend days,” Ms. Fishman said.
Dr. Li faces up to 15 years in prison on each of the manslaughter charges.
Queens Doctor Is Charged in 2 Patients’ Deaths
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Queens Doctor Is Charged in 2 Patients’ Deaths
