Dr. Stan Li Sentenced To Prison In Prescription Drug Deaths Case
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) - A Queens doctor accused of selling prescription drugs out of his pain-management clinic has been sentenced in the deaths of two of his patients.
Judge Michael Sonberg spoke of Dr. Stan Li's incredible intellect and training and then blasted him for greed and slammed him with a sentence that will keep the 61-year-old doctor behind bars for more than 10 years, with a maximum of 30, WCBS 880's Irene Cornell reported.
Dr. Stan Li Sentenced To Prison In Prescription Drug Deaths Case
It's believed to be New York's first manslaughter case against a doctor in an overdose death.
Prosecutors say Li put his financial well-being ahead of his patients' health by prescribing lethal amounts of powerful painkillers to addicted patients. Some had repeatedly overdosed.
Li said he was a conscientious doctor who was misled by his patients. His lawyer has called the conviction a "miscarriage of justice.''
Li, who treated Medford pharmacy shooter David Laffer, was arrested for selling prescriptions to another person who overdosed and died, sources told CBS2 in 2011.
Prosecutors say Li also sold prescriptions to Michael Cornetta of Queens. Cornetta, 40, allegedly received dozens of prescriptions from Li for a year between 2009 and 2010, ultimately dying of an overdose.
Aaron Kinglsey, whose addicted father died of an overdose after buying prescriptions from Dr. Li, came to court Friday.
"I was very happy that the judge actually used my father as one of the examples and you know really told Dr. Li what it was about. You know you weren't really trying to help people. What it was you saw them being easy money and that's what you did," Kingsley said.
Dr. Li made hundreds of thousands of dollars with his one-day-a-week pain management clinic.
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