A Queens doctor on trial for manslaughter in the overdose deaths of two patients he prescribed painkillers to, valued money over human life, prosecutors charged Wednesday in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Prosecutors said Stan Xuhui Li ran a “lucrative” side business out of a basement office in Flushing, Queens, prescribing and selling pills like anti-anxiety med Xanex and painkiller Oxycodone to as many as 90 patients a day and pocketing $450,000 in cash over two years.
“This is a case about a doctor who put money before lives,” Assistant District Attorney Charlotte Fishman told jurors in opening statements. “We will prove he exploted addictions … in pursuit of the almighty dollar.”
Fishman said Li regularly prescribed his patients huge doses of Oxycodone and Xanax despite knowing that some were addicts or drug dealers. His attorney has denied that claim, placing the blame on the pill poppers.
“No one took the medicine Dr. Li prescribed the way that he prescribed them,” said defense lawyer Raymond Belair.
Two of Li’s patients — Joseph Haeg and Nicholas Rappold — overdosed on a lethal combination of Xanex and Oxycodone in 2009 and 2010, respectively. Li is accused of prescribing both men hundreds of pills in the months leading to their deaths.
Li also wrote scripts for drug-addled killer David Laffer, who slaughtered four people in 2011 when he held up a Long Island pharmacy for pain killers.
Belair painted Li, a licensed anesthesiologist who worked full time at a New Jersey hospital, as a hardworking doctor that cared about his patients. The lawyer said Li opened up the Queens office so that his Chinese wife could come to the US to work.
“This isn’t a malpractice case. This is a case that claims dr. Li sold prescriptions. He didn’t sell prescriptions,” said Belair. “There is no reasonable conclusion that could be drawn … other than he acted in good faith and tried to help his patients.”
In 2012, Li was indicted on 211 counts — including charges of second-degree manslaughter, reckless endangerment and falsifying business records.
The trial is expected to last until the end of June.