Narcotics Squad to Expand Probe of Producer’s Death

The narcotics division of the Los Angeles Police Department is expanding its probe of Don Simpson’s Jan. 19 death to determine whether local doctors and pharmacies violated any laws in prescribing drugs to the famous film producer, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

Homicide detectives recovered more than 2,200 prescription pills and capsules from Simpson’s Stone Canyon Road home in Bel-Air; some of the drugs were prescribed to an individual named Dan Wilson. An autopsy is being conducted to determine the cause of Simpson’s death.

Sources say Dan Wilson was a pseudonym for Simpson used by doctors involved last summer in an unsuccessful drug detoxification treatment program conducted at the producer’s home.

It is illegal in California to prescribe medications to a patient under a fictitious name or address. Under state and federal law, a doctor or a pharmacy that knowingly dispenses a controlled substance to someone under a fictitious name could be charged with a felony.

Candis Cohen, spokeswoman for the Medical Board of California, said, “By law, a physician must conduct a good faith exam and have a legitimate medical purpose to prescribe medication to a patient.”

Simpson’s attorney Robert Chapman said he had no knowledge of anyone named Dan Wilson living at Simpson’s home. He also said that if medications had been prescribed to Wilson he did not know why.

Some of the controlled substances recovered from Simpson’s home were prescribed by Simpson’s physician and friend Stephen Ammerman, who was found dead of a drug overdose in the producer’s pool house Aug. 15.

According to the coroner’s report on Ammerman, investigators found a syringe and a vial of Valium prescribed to Dan Wilson near Ammerman’s body Aug. 15. That prescription was written by Ammerman and filled by Prime Care Pharmacy in Van Nuys.

Ronald Marks, a Beverly Hills attorney who represents the pharmacy, acknowledged in an interview that Prime Care dispensed prescriptions to Dan Wilson at Simpson’s address during the month of July, but declined further comment. In a letter written to a lawyer representing Ammerman’s family, Marks said that Prime Care was aware of a patient being treated at Simpson’s address last summer who “was well-known and would be using a pseudonym.”

Individuals at Simpson’s house last summer also observed West Los Angeles doctor Nomi Fredrick as well as two registered nurses and other medical technicians regularly on the premises throughout July and August.

A prescription record obtained by The Times indicates that Fredrick prescribed medication last summer to Dan Wilson. Records also show that Fredrick prescribed drugs to Ammerman, whom she had treated as a patient throughout 1995.

Fredrick did not return repeated calls to her office seeking comment.

Neither Fredrick, Prime Care Pharmacy nor any other individuals are under investigation at this time, according to police sources.

Officials at the California Department of Justice are expected to meet next week with narcotics detectives to determine whether state narcotics investigators should join the probe. The California Board of Pharmacies is already reviewing possible improprieties.

“The fact that a number of parties tried to cover up what was going on by using a fictitious name on the prescription is a clear violation of the law,” said Alexander Lampone, a Pacific Palisades physician and attorney retained by Ammerman’s family to investigate the doctor’s death.

The results of Simpson’s autopsy report are not expected to be released for another month.