Doctor Illegally Prescribed 5,000 Pills, Prosecutor Says : Courts: A trial opens for Newhall physician Sandra Soho. Her attorney says she ordered the drugs out of compassion.

A Newhall doctor illegally prescribed more than 5,000 pain pills to two women over a six-month period, a prosecutor said Monday during opening arguments in a San Fernando Superior Court trial.

But a lawyer for Dr. Sandra Soho, 49, of Hollywood said in court that Soho did nothing illegal and prescribed the drugs out of compassion to relieve the pain of her two patients.

Soho, known as Dr. Stanley Soho before a 1986 sex-change operation, is charged with two counts of prescribing controlled substances for other than medical purposes, two counts of prescribing drugs to an addict and a single count of issuing a false or fictitious prescription.

If convicted, Soho faces a maximum sentence of three years and eight months in prison, Deputy Dist. Atty. Andrew Flier said.

Soho could also lose her medical license from the California Medical Board.

A representative of the state attorney general’s office argued during a hearing in January that Soho’s license should be revoked because of the pending criminal allegations. But the board’s decision is not expected until after the court case is decided, Deputy Atty. Gen. Gloria Barrios said.

The case against Soho is based on complaints by two Santa Clarita women who say that between August, 1989, and February, 1990, Soho prescribed more than 5,000 pain pills to them.

One of them, Debra Little, testified during a preliminary hearing in 1990 that Soho wrote a prescription for 100 tablets of a codeine-based painkiller after a brief examination in August, 1989. During the exam, Little had complained of back pain and headaches, according to her testimony at the preliminary hearing.

Weeks later, according to her testimony, Little was visiting Soho once or twice a week to receive a new prescription for 100 pills. Little said in court that after she expressed concern that pharmacists were growing suspicious about her frequent orders for drugs, Soho occasionally wrote her prescriptions in the name of Debra Lehar. Little testified that it was Soho who suggested that she use a false name to receive prescriptions.

Flier said in court Monday: “There was no justification for her prescriptions.”

But Soho’s attorney, Alex J. Forgette, denied any wrongdoing by the physician. Instead, Forgette said in court that the two women filed a complaint against Soho after they became angry with the doctor for refusing to issue them any more prescriptions.

Soho in 1986 bought the practice of Dr. Milos Klvana, a home birthing advocate who was sentenced in February, 1990, to 53 years to life in prison after being convicted of nine counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of eight infants and a fetus.