Doctor Gets 6 Months in Addict Wife’s Death

A San Fernando Valley neurosurgeon who pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and illegally prescribing large doses of a painkiller that led to his addict wife’s overdose death was sentenced Friday to serve 180 days in Los Angeles County Jail.

Dr. Stephen M. Levine, 42, was also sentenced to five years’ probation and ordered to perform 2,000 hours of community medical service for the May 12, 1984, death of his wife, Myrna, at the couple’s Tarzana home.

Levine’s brother, Dr. David Levine, 43, an orthopedist who pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact in Myrna Levine’s death, was sentenced to one year probation, fined $2,500 and ordered to perform 200 hours of community service.

Superior Court Judge Robert Fainer called Stephen Levine “a tragic figure” and said he had no doubt “that he is a kind and loving father, a decent human being and a fine, dedicated doctor--but I think he must serve a jail sentence.”

Stephen Levine originally was charged with one count of murder and 44 felony counts of illegally prescribing the drug Demerol, while his brother, David, was charged with three counts of being an accessory after the fact to murder, plus health and safety code violations.

On March 6, however, Steven was allowed to plead guilty to the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter and five illegal prescription counts, and David was allowed to plead guilty to one health code violation and to being an accessory.

Prosecutors said Steven Levine was promised a sentence of no more than a year in jail and David was promised no more than six months because the doctors had no previous criminal records and were respected by other physicians.

With time off for good behavior and work credits, Stephen Levine could serve as few as 120 days, according to his attorney, Gerson S. Horn.

Fainer suggested that while behind bars Steven Levine be placed in some program that would utilize his medical training--perhaps in the jail ward of County-USC Medical Center. He said he would recommend to the state Board of Medical Quality Assurance that both brothers be disciplined but not suspended.

But Ken Wagstaff, executive director of the state board, which licenses and disciplines physicians, said the judge’s recommendation would be only one factor in the board’s decision.

“When a physician is found guilty of a crime which endangers or ends a human life,” Wagstaff said in a telephone interview from Sacramento, “a substantial question is raised as to the fitness of that physician to practice medicine. Obviously, we’re going to take the judge’s findings into account, but I think that we have a responsibility to do our own review.”

Options open to the board include reprimand, probation, permanent or temporary suspension of license, or placing limitations on the doctor’s practice--such as supervision by another physician.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Dawson said Stephen Levine secured the drug Demerol for his addict wife by writing more than 225 prescriptions, using a fictitious name and address. After she died, David Levine signed her death certificate, falsely listing the cause of death as cardiac arrest, prosecutors alleged.

An investigation into the death began after the dead woman’s sister and brother came to police with several empty Demerol bottles. An autopsy performed at the request of police found no trace of disease in Myrna Levine’s body but did detect a level of Demerol 24 to 48 times the amount that would be present under normal medical use.

Defense attorney Horn called his client a “brilliant brain surgeon who was completely and thoroughly naive when it came to his wife, who he loved very much.” He characterized Myrna Levine as a “powerful woman” who “thoroughly manipulated” her husband into believing that the Demerol prescriptions he supplied were for her dying father.

The brothers, who now live in Studio City, were partners in a Chatsworth industrial medicine clinic and operated individual private practices in Beverly Hills and Los Angeles.