Off the wire
• Interview: China-S.Korea FTA starting point to regional, global economic integration  • 1st LD: Russian jetliner wreckage found on Egypt's Sinai: reports  • Urgent: Russian jetliner crashes in Egypt: Tass  • Central China road accident kills 5, injures 8  • Roundup: Afghan Taliban's offensive in October incurs heavy losses  • Chinese brokerages see surging profits in first nine months  • New national party launched in Osaka, splitting Japan's second largest opposition party  • Roundup: South Asia rises, Bangladesh slips in World Bank business ranking  • Rockets lose game against Warriors 92-112  • Made-in-China multiple unit train delivered to Macedonia  
You are here: 　 Home

Doctor convicted of murder for drug-overdose deaths in Los Angeles

Xinhua, October 31, 2015 Adjust font size:

A female doctor in the Greater Los Angeles area was convicted of second-degree murder Friday for the drug-overdose deaths of her three patients.

Hsiu-Ying "Lisa" Tseng, who has a clinic in Rowland Heights, was convicted in the deaths of Vu Nguyen, 29, Steven Ogle, 25, and Joseph Rovero III, 21, between March and December 2009.

Tseng's case marked the first time a doctor in the state has been charged with murder for the deaths of patients who overdose on the drugs he or she prescribes.

"This verdict sends a strong message to individuals in the medical community who put patients at risk for their own financial gain," District Attorney Jackie Lacey said.

"In this case, the doctor stole the lives of three young people in her misguided effort to get rich quick," Lacey said.

In addition to the three counts of second-degree murder, Tseng was also convicted of 19 counts of unlawful prescription of a controlled substance and one count of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud, according to local media reports.

She faces life in prison when sentenced Dec. 14.

A prosecutor told jurors earlier this month that Tseng, 45, faked medical records to cover up her misdeeds, and the case involved the "prescribing of high levels of opiates" without medical justification to patients who did not need them even after she learned some had overdosed on the substances she prescribed.

Deputy District Attorney John Niedermann said that Tseng had received calls from coroner's officials about deaths of some of the patients she had seen, along with fielding calls from family members who had told her not to prescribe to or see their loved ones.

Defense lawyer Tracy Green, however, said Tseng shouldn't have been convicted of anything more than manslaughter and plans to appeal.

"It's disappointing," Green said. "I don't think it bodes well for doctors in America."

Tseng agreed in February 2012 to surrender her license and stopped practice just before being taken into custody in connection with the criminal charges. Enditem