Tustin doctor accused of illegally prescribing pills that ended up with Thousand Oaks mass shooter is indicted
An Orange County doctor accused of illegally prescribing drugs was indicted this week on a half-dozen felony counts.
The federal indictment came a month after prosecutors alleged that medication prescribed by Dzung Ahn Pham was found in the system of a driver suspected of fatally striking a Costa Mesa fire captain and in the hands of a gunman who carried out the mass shooting at the Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand Oaks.
Pham, the owner of the Irvine Village Urgent Care, is facing six counts of distribution of Oxycodone, Hydrocodone, and Amphetamine Salts, according to a federal grand jury indictment filed this week at the U.S. District Court in Santa Ana.
Federal prosecutors, in a lengthy court filing in early December, alleged that Pham routinely gave out large quantities of powerful narcotics to dozens of patients, oftentimes the exact medications, and in the exact quantities, the patients specifically requested. In an earlier statement, the U.S. Attorney’s Office described Pham as “flooding” Southern California with huge quantities of prescription drugs that “he knew would be diverted to the street.”
The indictment specifically alleges that Pham prescribed mediation “without a legitimate medical purpose” to several individuals in August, October and November 2018.
Pham, who was released from custody on an $80,000 bond, is scheduled to return to court on Tuesday morning to be arraigned on the charges outlined in the indictment.
Prosecutors say at least five people suspected of receiving and filling prescriptions from Pham died of drug overdoses.
According to a sworn statement by a federal agent, narcotics prescribed by Pham were in the system of Stephen Taylor Scarpa, when Scarpa is suspected of veering into a bike lane while driving along Alicia Parkway in Mission Viejo and killing Costa Mesa fire Capt. Mike Kreza.
Text messages obtained by investigators also indicated that prescription bottles of Pham’s that he had given someone else were found in the possession of Ian David Long, the gunman who carried out the Borderline shooting that left 13 dead, prosecutors allege.
Pham, of Tustin, is not facing any criminal charges tied to the overdoses, the death of the fire captain or the Borderline shooting.