WESTLAKE VILLAGE : Doctor Investigated Over Drugs for Sex

The California Medical Board is investigating allegations that a Westlake Village cardiologist traded drugs for sex with a drug-addicted Thousand Oaks patient who later was murdered by her boyfriend.

Medical Board investigators searched the home and office of Dr. Don Alan Lee on Monday and seized the medical and financial records of his patient, Ellen Cleary, according to an affidavit filed in Ventura County Superior Court.

Lee had prescribed the tranquilizers Darvocet, Librium and Xanax to Cleary although he knew that she was addicted to drugs and alcohol, said the affidavit filed by Medical Board investigator Robert W. Sherer. Sherer also alleged that Lee had sexual relations with Cleary, in violation of a state law that forbids doctors from having sex with their patients.

Lee has declined to comment on the investigation, a spokeswoman at his office said Tuesday.

Cleary’s boyfriend, Timothy J. Velasco, was convicted of first-degree murder Friday for killing her Oct. 4.

Velasco told police in a videotaped interview played for jurors that he walked into Cleary’s condominium to find her having sex with Lee.

Velasco told police that he slashed Cleary’s neck and strangled her with plastic bags about an hour after Lee left to save her from her addiction to drugs and alcohol.

During the trial, Lee testified that he had a sexual relationship with his patient, and that he prescribed lithium to treat her chronic depression.

Sheriff’s detectives obtained copies of prescriptions that Lee had written for Cleary for Darvocet, Xanax, Librium and other controlled substances, dating from Jan. 22, 1988, to the time of her death, the affidavit said.

Before the trial, Lee told sheriff’s investigators that Cleary began seeing him as a patient on April 7, 1987, and told him that she was addicted to Valium and alcohol, and was taking three Xanax a day, the affidavit said.

“These statements indicate there was no question” in Lee’s mind, the affidavit said, “that his patient, Cleary, was an addict from the beginning of the treatment to the time of her death.”

Cleary’s autopsy revealed that she had a 0.15% blood-alcohol level and her system tested positive for Benzodiazepines, a class of controlled substances that includes Xanax and Librium.

The Medical Board probably will review Lee’s case for another 30 to 60 days before deciding how to act, said board spokeswoman Janie Cordrey.

The board could press criminal charges against Lee through the Ventura County district attorney’s office, and it could take disciplinary action against him, ranging from suspending his license to revoking it, Cordrey said.