Opioid prescriber loses appeal of murder conviction

The only physician known to have been convicted of murder in the U.S. for prescribing opiates lost her appeal Friday.

A panel of the 2nd District Court of Appeal found "overwhelming evidence of Tseng's knowledge of risk and reckless indifference to her patients' lives in her prescribing practices to support her convictions." People v. Tseng, 2018 DJDAR 11891 (Cal. App. 2nd Dist. Dec. 14, 2018).

In an email, Verna J. Wefald, who represented former doctor Hsiu Y. Tseng, said she was "very disappointed" with the court's ruling and intends to file a petition for review with the state Supreme Court.

In 2016, a Los Angeles jury found Tseng guilty of three counts of second degree murder, 19 counts of unlawfully prescribing controlled substances, and one count of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud. She was sentenced to 30 years to life in state prison.

Wefald argued the trial, which played out in front of Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge George G. Lomeli, was riddled with prosecutorial misconduct. Prosecutors presented evidence of six uncharged deaths during the trial, an admission Wefald said prejudiced the jury. They also elicited information about deaths of two victims who died after the last charged death, information sealed by a court order.

All parties conceded the latter misconduct, but the 2nd District court held the violation was "not so pervasive as to infect the trial" and, therefore, did not warrant mistrial.

As for the trial judge's allowance of information pertaining to six uncharged deaths, the panel found this evidence to be relevant because it spoke to Tseng's "subjective awareness of the dangerous consequences of overprescribing opioids and other controlled substances to patients whom she knew to be 'drug-seeking' or suffering the symptoms of addiction."

Deputy Attorney General David F. Glassman argued on behalf of the state but declined to comment on the court ruling.