A Queens doctor charged with supplying more than 2,500 OxyContin pills to the drug addict who killed four people in a Long Island pharmacy last year left behind a trail of bodies himself, prosecutors said yesterday.
Stan Li, 58, caused the overdose deaths of two patients and “recklessly endangered” the lives of five other patients who died from his brisk prescription-pills-for-cash business, officials said.
Li pleaded not guilty to charges of manslaughter, reckless endangerment and illegal sales of prescription substances.
The city’s special narcotics prosecutor said Li worked as an anesthesiologist during the week, and then doled out prescriptions for cash at his Flushing clinic on weekends.
Patients lined up on the sidewalk to see him early in the morning, and he’d see between 70 and 100 people per day, officials said.
“His motive was pure greed. He used patient records as ledgers, noting cash received,” said prosecutor Cheryl Fishman.
He made at least $450,000 from his prescription peddling over a two-year period and had $1.2 million in his bank account when authorities first started investigating him, Fishman said.
Li turned a blind eye to obvious signs of addictions, including prescribing more than 500 pills over a one-month period to a 37-year-old man who died of an overdose, authorities said.
Li’s lawyer, Raymond Belair, said of his client: “He was a careful, caring physician. There was no way he could have known if a patient was doctor-shopping or exceeded prescription limits.”
Li was suspended last year after one patient, OxyContin addict David Laffer, shot and killed two employees and two customers while holding up a Long Island pharmacy for painkillers in June 2011.
Li provided 24 prescriptions filled by Laffer, authorities said.