Drug Inquiry Clears 2 Doctors : Medicine: A judge says the physicians were justified in giving narcotics to a known addict who had severe chest pains.

A Municipal Court judge last week dismissed criminal charges against two Monrovia doctors accused of administering narcotics to a known drug addict when she complained of chest pains.

Judge Rudolph A. Diaz threw out four felony counts against Dr. Jose Banayos Viloria and Dr. Chito Friala Sansano, saying the doctors were justified in prescribing Demerol and other narcotics to Mary Contreras, even though they knew she was undergoing detoxification treatment for narcotics addiction at a methadone clinic.

“Maybe (the doctors) weren’t always being the most prudent, but I don’t think a jury can say they were acting criminally,” Diaz said.

State law bars doctors from giving narcotics to known drug addicts except during emergencies where the drug is believed necessary.

The state attorney general’s office filed the charges against the doctors in June after two nurses complained to the Medical Board of California that too many patients at Monrovia Community Hospital were receiving narcotic medication, said Deputy Atty. Gen. Adrian Tigmo, who handled the case. State authorities would not explain how the nurses’ complaints led to the charges against the doctors.

Contreras, 32, was admitted to the hospital June 20, 1987, complaining of severe chest pains. An emergency room cardiologist gave her a shot of the narcotic Demerol, a pain-killer commonly used to treat heart-attack victims. The drug can be highly addictive.

About a week later, under Viloria’s and Sansano’s direction, the West Covina woman was given another shot of Demerol. When the doctors discharged her July 3, 1987, they gave her a prescription for codeine, another narcotic.

During a weeklong preliminary hearing in Rio Hondo Municipal Court, Viloria said that in prescribing the drugs for Contreras, he and Sansano only did what any other doctor would do when faced with a possible heart-attack victim.

“We prescribed narcotics to relieve the pain,” he said Tuesday. “When you don’t, that produces stress, anxiety and frustration.”