Ex-SoCal Doctor Sentenced to 30 Years to Life in Overdose Deaths

Tseng was the first California doctor charged with murder for the deaths of patients given prescriptions for drugs

A former Rowland Heights doctor convicted last fall of second-degree murder for the drug overdose deaths of three of her patients was sentenced Friday to 30 years to life in California prison.

Prosecutors asked Los Angeles Superior Court Judge George G. Lomeli to hand down that sentence to Hsui-Ying "Lisa" Tseng for the deaths of Vu Nguyen, 28, of Lake Forest; Steven Ogle, 24, of Palm Desert; and Joseph Rovero III, a 21-year-old Arizona State University student from San Ramon, between March and December 2009.

Tseng's attorney, Tracy Green, asked the judge to sentence her 46-year-old client to the minimum 15-year-to-life term.

Tseng was convicted Oct. 30 of three counts of second-degree murder, 19 counts of unlawful controlled substance prescription and one count of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud. It marked the first time in California that a doctor was charged with murder for the deaths of patients given prescriptions for drugs.

In their sentencing papers, deputy district attorneys John Niedermann and Grace Rai wrote that, "While amassing a fortune of millions of dollars, and despite repeated warnings pertaining to the danger to her patients, the defendant's prescribing practices never changed and in some patients actually increased ... The defendant's concern was not for the well-being of her patients but rather the monetary benefits they provided her."

The prosecutors wrote that it was even more compelling that Tseng knew that three of her other patients had overdosed before Nguyen, Ogle and Rovero died and that she continued to prescribe controlled substances "in a reckless manner knowing the possible consequences of her actions."

Tseng's attorney said Thursday that her client had no prior criminal record and surrendered her license to practice osteopathic medicine before she was arrested.

"It's never going to happen again," Tseng's lawyer said.

At a hearing last December, Rovero's mother, April, said, "All of these tragedies were avoidable."

"I hope in time she will feel the remorse she should," she said.

Ogle's mother, Desiree Ogle-Spillman, spoke directly to Tseng.

"You froze time for all of us and the lives you so carelessly took," she said.

During Tseng's trial, prosecutor John Niedermann told jurors that she faked medical records to cover up her misdeeds. "She is warned again and again and again. They're dying, they're dying, they're dying," Niedermann told the jury. "She understands what she's doing, the harm of it, and she does it anyway."

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, he said.

Tseng's attorney accused investigators of a "rush to judgment" and of singling Tseng out while failing to interview other doctors who may have treated the patients, who she said took "far in excess" of the dosages prescribed by Tseng.

The defense attorney contended that there was "no evidence" that her client was simply handing prescriptions to patients who asked for them, and that the doctor was trying to taper down the medication of some patients.

Tseng agreed in February 2012 to surrender her license to practice, just before being taken into custody in connection with the criminal charges. She has been behind bars in lieu of $3 million bail since her March 1, 2012, arrest.

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