Doctor Placed on Probation for Over-Prescribing Pills

Over a prosecutor’s objections, a judge placed a Newhall doctor on three years probation Friday and fined her $5,000 for illegally prescribing more than 5,000 pain pills to two patients.

San Fernando Superior Court Judge Malcolm H. Mackey said Sandra Soho, 49, known as Stanley Soho before a 1987 sex-change procedure, had suffered enough punishment while she was being evaluated in custody before sentencing. Mackey said he believed Soho is too ill to perform community service.

Soho could walk when she went for the evaluation, but court documents indicate the condition of her back and legs deteriorated after poor medical attention and mistreatment in prisons. Soho, who doctors say has phlebitis and serious back problems from a Vietnam War injury, was wheeled into the courtroom Friday on a hospital gurney.

Soho could have received a maximum 44-month prison sentence.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Andrew R. Flier said Soho held a position of trust as a doctor and acted in disregard for her patients’ safety when she prescribed the drugs.

“I thought she would have to help the community in some way,” Flier said in court. “Does this mean that anyone who has a physical ailment should just get off?”

Officials who evaluated Soho recommended probation because she posed only a “minimal threat” to the community and had no prior record, according to court documents. Her license to practice medicine has been revoked.

Soho insisted in court that she was beaten while in custody, and is suing the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for damages. The department has declined to comment.

Defense attorney Alex J. Forgette said Soho was acting in good faith to relieve her patients’ pain when she issued the prescriptions between August, 1989, and February, 1990.

Soho was convicted of two counts of prescribing controlled substances for other than medical purposes, two counts of prescribing drugs to an addict and a count of issuing a false prescription.

Forgette said Soho repeatedly asked to see a doctor for her swollen disks and spinal damage while being evaluated at Sybil Brand Institute in Los Angeles and the California Correctional Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, but was granted only two visits.

Forgette also said a clerical error in prison caused Soho to be misidentified by other inmates as a felon who sold drugs to minors. Such felons are often beaten in jail, he said.