LOS ANGELES, Feb 5 (Reuters) - A Southern California doctor was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison on Friday for over-prescribing drugs that caused the fatal overdose of three patients in a murder case capped by the first conviction of its kind in the United States.
The case against Dr. Hsiu Ying "Lisa" Tseng, 46, comes amid what public health officials describe as a national epidemic of drug abuse. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said the trend is fueling nearly 17,000 overdose deaths annually, as well as a rise in heroin addiction.
A Los Angeles County Superior Court jury in October convicted Tseng, who specialized in internal medicine, of three counts of second-degree murder in a case prosecutors said showed she put greed above patients' wellbeing.
She was also found guilty of 19 counts of unlawfully prescribing a controlled substance and one count of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud.
LOS ANGELES, CA. - OCTOBER 14: The prosecution shows young men who died from prescription drug overdoses written by Dr.Hsiu-Ying 'Lisa' Tseng during the prosecution's closing arguments in the trial of Hsiu-Ying 'Lisa' Tseng in Los Angeles County Superior Court on October 14, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. The Rowland Heights doctor is charged in the deaths of a string of perception medicine overdoses of men in their 20's. (Photo by Anne Cusack/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
HsiuÂ Ying 'Lisa'' Tseng, a Rowland Heights doctor charged with secondÂdegree murder and other counts in the prescription drug overdose deaths of three male patients in their 20s, appears in a Los Angeles courtroom with lawyer Donald B. Marks (left) for a preliminary hearing on Monday, June 4, 2012. (Photo by Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Kelle and Bruce Stavron, huddled together near a photo of their son Matthew who died of an overdose of drugs like those he got from Dr.Lisa Tseng. Photo of Mathew was shot just 3 days before he passed away. He was happy, sober, very much in love and engaged to be married at the time of photo taken. (Photo by Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
HsiuÂ Ying 'Lisa'' Tseng, a Rowland Heights doctor charged with secondÂdegree murder and other counts in the prescription drug overdose deaths of three male patients in their 20s, appears in a Los Angeles courtroom for a preliminary hearing on Monday, June 4, 2012. (Photo by Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Under the sentence imposed on Friday, Tseng must serve at least 30 years in prison before she is eligible for parole. She has been in custody since March 2012.
Criminally prosecuting physicians for patients' deaths is relatively rare, with one notable case being the 2011 involuntary manslaughter conviction of Dr. Conrad Murray for giving pop star Michael Jackson a fatal dose of a surgical anesthetic to help him sleep.
Prosecutors said Tseng's conviction, the culmination of a six-week trial, marked the first time in which a U.S. physician was found guilty of murder for over-prescribing drugs.
Licensed to practice in 1997, Tseng opened a storefront medical office in 2005 in Rowland Heights, a hillside community east of Los Angeles that is home to many upper-middle-class and wealthy immigrants from China, Taiwan and South Korea.
At the trial, prosecutors pointed to nine overdose deaths associated with Tseng's practice in less than three years, during which they said she had made $5 million from her clinic, dispensing potent, addictive medications to people who did not need them.
The drugs included powerful narcotics such as oxycodone, methadone and hydrocodone, and sedatives like Xanax and Valium.
She was convicted in the 2009 deaths of three patients - Vu Nguyen, 28, Steven Ogle, 24, and Joseph Rovero, 21. None resided anywhere near Rowland Heights, and one, Rovero, was an Arizona State University student from the San Francisco area.
Tseng, who received her medical degree from Michigan State University, surrendered her medical license prior to arrest. Her federal license to prescribe drugs was revoked. (Reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Alistair Bell and Dan Grebler)
Brunson, who returned to the United States aboard a military jet shortly before their meeting, appeared to be in good health and good spirits. He thanked Trump for working to secure his freedom and then lead his family in prayer for the president. "You really fought for us," he told Trump.
This undated photo made available by the Dogan News Agency on March 13, 2018 shows Andrew Brunson, an American pastor, in Izmir. Andrew Brunson, an American pastor held in Turkey for one and a half years in a case that further strained relations between Ankara and Washington, is to go on trial on April 16 on terror-related charges. Brunson, who ran a church in the western city of Izmir, was detained by the Turkish authorities in October 2016 and then remanded in custody. He is charged in the indictment with carrying out activities on behalf of the group led by preacher Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara says masterminded the failed coup in 2016, and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Both are banned by Turkey as terror groups. / AFP PHOTO / DHA / STR / Turkey OUT (Photo credit should read STR/AFP/Getty Images)
Cem Halavurt, the lawyer of jailed American pastor Andrew Brunson, speaks during an interview on April 15, 2018 in Izmir. American pastor Andrew Brunson, who ran a church in the western city of Izmir, will go on trial in Turkey on April 16, 2018, on terror-related charges after spending the last one-and-a-half years behind bars, in a case that has raised friction between Ankara and Washington. He is charged in the indictment with carrying out activities on behalf of the group led by preacher Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara says masterminded the failed coup in 2016, and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Both are banned by Turkey as terror groups. / AFP PHOTO / OZAN KOSE (Photo credit should read OZAN KOSE/AFP/Getty Images)
Ismail Cem Halavurt (C), the lawyer of jailed US pastor Andrew Brunson, arrives for the trial of his client, held on charges of aiding terror groups, in Aliaga, north of Izmir, on April 16, 2018. An American pastor went on trial in Turkey on April 16 on terror-related charges after spending the last one-and-a-half years behind bars, in a case that has increased friction between Ankara and Washington. Andrew Brunson, who ran a church in the western city of Izmir and was detained in October 2016, was present in court as the trial opened in the town of Aliaga north of Izmir. / AFP PHOTO / OZAN KOSE (Photo credit should read OZAN KOSE/AFP/Getty Images)
US Senetor Thom Tillis speaks to the press in front of the Aliaga court and prison complex, after the trial of US pastor Andrew Brunson, held on charges of aiding terror groups, in Aliaga, north of Izmir, on April 16, 2018. An American Christian pastor who has spent the last one and a half years in jail in Turkey strongly rejected terror-related charges on April 16, 2018 as his trial got underway, in a case that has raised tensions with Washington. Andrew Brunson, who ran a protestant church in the western city of Izmir, was detained by Turkish authorities in October 2016. If convicted, he risks up to 35 years in jail. / AFP PHOTO / OZAN KOSE (Photo credit should read OZAN KOSE/AFP/Getty Images)
Jailed US pastor Andrew Brunson's wife Norine Brunson leaves the Aliaga court and prison complex, after the trial of US pastor Andrew Brunson, held on charges of aiding terror groups, in Aliaga, north of Izmir, on April 16, 2018. An American Christian pastor who has spent the last one and a half years in jail in Turkey strongly rejected terror-related charges on April 16, 2018 as his trial got underway, in a case that has raised tensions with Washington. Andrew Brunson, who ran a protestant church in the western city of Izmir, was detained by Turkish authorities in October 2016. If convicted, he risks up to 35 years in jail. / AFP PHOTO / OZAN KOSE (Photo credit should read OZAN KOSE/AFP/Getty Images)
Cem Halavurt, the lawyer of jailed American pastor Andrew Brunson,leaves the Aliaga court and prison complex, after the trial of US pastor Andrew Brunson, held on charges of aiding terror groups, in Aliaga, north of Izmir, on April 16, 2018. An American Christian pastor who has spent the last one and a half years in jail in Turkey strongly rejected terror-related charges on April 16, 2018 as his trial got underway, in a case that has raised tensions with Washington. Andrew Brunson, who ran a protestant church in the western city of Izmir, was detained by Turkish authorities in October 2016. If convicted, he risks up to 35 years in jail. / AFP PHOTO / OZAN KOSE (Photo credit should read OZAN KOSE/AFP/Getty Images)