Laguna Doctor in Fatal Crash Is Suspected of Being on Drugs : Tragedy: Physician is arrested after collision claimed lives of couple and critically injured 12-year-old daughter.

A Laguna Beach doctor, arrested Sunday after a head-on collision that killed a Mission Viejo couple and critically injured their 12-year-old daughter, was suspected of driving under the influence of drugs, authorities said Monday.

Internist Ronald Joseph Allen, 31, already faces hit-and-run charges stemming from an accident last month, and California Highway Patrol spokeswoman Angel Johnson said Monday authorities will ask prosecutors to file murder charges in Sunday’s crash.

Mark and Noreen Minzey were on their way home from their daughter’s softball tournament Sunday evening. The Minzeys and two friends were driving along Santiago Canyon Road when the accident occurred.

Allen was arrested on investigation of driving under the influence of “drugs and maybe alcohol,” Johnson said. She declined to elaborate. He was also being held on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter.

According to records filed in Municipal Court in Laguna Niguel, Allen was arrested last month in Laguna Beach on suspicion of public intoxication and resisting arrest after a hit-and-run accident. As a result of the incident, a Laguna Beach hospital terminated his staff privileges to practice there, police said.

Karie Minzey remained in critical condition Monday with “extreme critical head injuries” at Western Medical Center in Santa Ana, Johnson said. She underwent surgery Sunday night and “may not live,” Johnson said.

Two other passengers in the Minzeys’ car, 12-year-old Danielle Rodriguez and her 24-year-old sister, Jackie, also were injured but were treated and released from UCI Medical Center on Sunday.

Allen was taken to UCI Medical Center, where he was treated for minor injuries and arrested. Bail is set at $25,000 but that could increase if murder charges are filed.

The Minzeys and the Rodriguezes were coming back from a girls softball league tournament in Anaheim Hills and were on their way to dinner, said Connie Beaty, president of Mission de Oro Bobby Sox League in Mission Viejo where Karie and Danielle play.

The softball players and their parents who heard the tragic news were shocked Monday, Beaty said. Karie’s all-star team had just won 8-0 the day before and Karie, her parents and her friends were on their way to celebrate.

“The girls went from the highest high yesterday,” Beaty said. “We just don’t know what to do. We just don’t want to bring them to the lowest low, but what can we do?” Meanwhile, officials with the Medical Board of California, which licenses the state’s physicians, said Monday they will begin their own investigation into the charges against Allen stemming from the accident.

“There is nothing in our system that indicated (Allen) has had a run-in with us,” said John Lancara, chief of enforcement.

The accident occurred about 7:35 p.m. outside the city limits of Orange. Noreen Minzey, 33, was driving south on Santiago Canyon Road, north of Silverado Canyon Road, when the car driven by Allen swerved head-on into her lane, Johnson said.

The couple died at the scene. Everyone in their car was wearing a seat belt, Johnson said.

Witnesses said Allen had been swerving in and out of lanes and had been driving “erratically” just before the collision, Johnson said. She added that he told the arresting officers that his father had died that day in Chicago.

Court records indicate that he pleaded not guilty last week to public intoxication, two counts of hit-and-run and two counts of resisting arrest, after a June 1 accident in which he hit three parked cars and failed the field sobriety test, said Laguna Beach Police Chief Neil J. Purcell.

The chief added that the blood tests indicated that Allen was not intoxicated with alcohol. The department is still awaiting the drug test results.

Because of that accident, Allen’s driver’s license was revoked. But 10 days after the accident, Allen applied for a new driver’s license and got a temporary permit, a spokeswoman with the state Department of Motor Vehicles said. It was not immediately clear if the issuing of a permit was a mistake.

Allen had been on the medical staff of South Coast Medical Center in Laguna Beach for a year before his privileges there were terminated, said Chris Goette, director of medical staff services at the hospital. She declined to talk about Allen other than to say he has a license in internal medicine, specializing in treating patients with the AIDS virus.

Chief Purcell said Allen requested a blood test following the June 1 incident and was taken to South Coast Medical Center. There, Purcell said, Allen “was loud and boisterous and wanted to fight with the officers. . . . It is our understanding that because of his conduct at that time, the hospital administration suspended him from practicing at the hospital.”

Lancara with the medical board said the medical center has not notified state medical authorities of the action against Allen, although he said hospitals are required to “report to us when a doctor has been terminated or any disciplinary action has been taken against him.”

Allen also practiced at the Center for Special Immunology, a medical office in Irvine that cares for patients who have the AIDS virus, for three months before he was fired last October, said the center spokesman Dan Woods.

Woods would not discuss the firing, but in a suit filed in Orange County Superior Court afterward, the center alleges breach of contract and that the doctor tried to lure workers and patients away. In a countersuit, Allen sued a doctor at the center, alleging the doctor slandered him by labeling him an alcoholic.

In addition to the June 1 accident, a warrant was issued for Allen on an unrelated incident, court records stated. It does not say when the incident occurred, but the warrant charged Allen with two counts of driving under the influence and one count of resisting arrest in early 1992.

On Monday, players from the Mission de Oro Bobby Sox League and their parents lined the hallways at Western Medical Center to await news of Karie. Many were in tears and all declined to be interviewed.

Mark and Noreen Minzey had been active in the league for years, and their daughter has played softball almost all of her life, said Beaty, the league’s president. Mark Minzey, 37, had coached for the league for several years while his wife acted as a manager for a team, Beaty said.

“I remember (Sunday) at the game, Noreen turned around and said proudly to me, ‘Did you see the triple play Karie got?’ ” Beaty said, her voice breaking. “Two girls scored on a hit by Karie, and Noreen was so proud.”

Karie’s team would go on to win Saturday and “when she was leaving with her parents and Jackie and Danielle, she was so excited about continuing to play in the tournament,” Beaty said.

Karie’s father, Mark Minzey, would volunteer his time for any activity the league needed, Beaty recalled. He helped to clear the playing field every year before the season started, and he and his wife would participate in all league-related fund-raisers.

“In our Bobby Sox prayer, there’s a line that says: ‘We thank the Lord for friendships made and for adults who lead the way,’--that’s what Mark and Noreen were to us,” Beaty said.