Overdose death launches murder probe of SoCal doctor

The Associated Press

LAKE ELSINORE, Calif. --

A doctor was arrested Tuesday for investigation of second-degree murder in the prescription drug overdose death of a patient who had dozens bottles of drugs in his room when he died.

California Department of Justice special agents arrested Dr. Wesley Albert, 78, at his home for writing large quantities of prescription drugs that led to the November death of Jason Morgan, authorities said.

Albert allegedly prescribed large quantities of the muscle relaxant Soma, also known as Carisoprodol, to the 28-year-old Riverside man. Investigators say 30 bottles of Albert-prescribed narcotics were in Morgan's room at the time of death.

The arrest followed a 10-month state investigation into what the attorney general's office called a "prescription mill" run by Albert from a room at the Lake Elsinore Hotel and Casino. He allegedly churned out hundreds of prescriptions at up to $100 each for Vicodin, Xanax, Soma and OxyContin.

"The California Department of Justice will crack down on crooked doctors who sell dangerous narcotics to people without a legitimate medical condition," Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. said in a statement.

Attorney general's spokesman Gareth Lacy said Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement special agents took Albert to the Riverside County Jail in Murrieta, where he was booked and held on a no-bail warrant.

The Riverside County district attorney's office will prosecute the case. Arraignment was scheduled Friday afternoon.

The hotel would not disclose contact information for Albert, and the spokesman for the attorney general did not know if Albert had retained an attorney. Attempts to locate his office and a phone number at his residence were unsuccessful.