Raids Target 2 Doctors of Dead Producer

As part of a wide-ranging investigation into the overdose death of Hollywood producer Don Simpson, authorities Friday raided the offices of two Westside psychiatrists who prescribed him large quantities of addictive drugs.

The two doctors are among as many as 15 at the center of a seven-month probe triggered by the Jan. 19 death of Simpson, who produced such box-office hits as “Top Gun” and “Beverly Hills Cop.” They, along with eight pharmacies, are believed to have dispensed drugs not only to Simpson but to nearly a dozen other wealthy Los Angeles patients.

Among those who received addictive drugs was a doctor who overdosed at Simpson’s Bel-Air home five months before the producer died there after ingesting 20 different prescription drugs and cocaine.

“Some of the drugs plaguing our community are being dispensed by individuals who have a responsibility for our health and safety,” said Det. Dave Miller, supervisor of the LAPD’s narcotics group in West Los Angeles. “Two people died of drug overdoses on Don Simpson’s property, and somebody has to answer for it.”

Law enforcement sources said they suspect that the doctors under scrutiny sought to conceal the amount and array of drugs that they prescribed, as well as the frequency with which they were dispensed, by using multiple pharmacies and in some cases false patient names. Officials have been reviewing the prescription records of a number of wealthy Los Angeles patients who apparently have circumvented drug laws--including Simpson, who was able to procure 15,000 pills over the past three years by going to more than a dozen doctors.

On Friday, more than 30 law enforcement officers descended on the Olympic Boulevard offices of Dr. Nomi J. Fredrick and Dr. Robert Hugh Gerner. Police emerged five hours later with vials of prescription drugs, patient files and computer disks. Gerner was present during the raid. Fredrick was not at her office, but was present at her West Los Angeles residence, where a search was conducted and prescription drugs were confiscated.

Gerner and Fredrick did not return calls seeking comment. Fredrick’s attorney declined to comment.

No charges have been brought against either doctor, but law enforcement sources said both are suspected of writing prescriptions for “illegitimate purposes”--a violation of the federal controlled substance act.

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An array of state and federal laws are designed to prevent patients from stockpiling dangerous and addictive drugs. Authorities have been trying to determine how many doctors and pharmacies under investigation knowingly violated the laws.

On the night Simpson died seven months ago, police discovered thousands of prescription pills and capsules at his Stone Canyon Drive home. The coroner’s toxicology report revealed that Simpson died Jan. 19 from an overdose of 20 drugs. Only one was illegal: cocaine.

Simpson was one of Hollywood’s most prolific and successful producers. Along with his partner Jerry Bruckheimer, Simpson most recently produced “Crimson Tide” and “Dangerous Minds.”

Since Simpson’s death, agents from the narcotics division of the Los Angeles Police Department, the California Board of Pharmacy, the California Medical Board and the Drug Enforcement Administration pored over thousands of prescription records and interviewed dozens of sources to find out how Simpson and other suspected abusers obtained drugs.

Authorities said they hope to present evidence against Fredrick and Gerner before a federal grand jury soon. Records confiscated Friday are expected to advance the probe significantly, law enforcement sources said.

“An examination of the prescribing habits of these doctors has led us to also look at a number of pharmacies where inappropriate dispensing patterns seem to have occurred,” said Bob Ratcliff, an inspector for the California Board of Pharmacy who is involved in the probe. “Our investigation is nowhere near finished yet.”

Fredrick and Gerner--who share an office on the sixth floor of an Olympic Boulevard high-rise--have known each other for at least seven years. At various times both treated Simpson.

Gerner, a graduate of the University of Oklahoma, has been practicing medicine for 20 years and is on the staff of St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica.

Records indicate that he prescribed large amounts of addictive drugs to Simpson between October 1993 and February 1994. The psychiatrist, 49, also wrote numerous amphetamine prescriptions for Dr. Stephen Ammerman, the physician who died of a drug overdose last summer at Simpson’s estate.

The California Medical Board suspended Gerner’s license temporarily in August 1994 for overprescribing drugs to a patient with whom he was accused of having sexual relations. In connection with that case, the board placed Gerner on probation for seven years for sexual misconduct, incompetence and gross negligence, according to state medical board records.

Fredrick, 40, also on the staff of St. John’s, is a specialist in psycho-pharmacology, a branch of psychiatry that involves treating psychological problems with medication. Records indicate that Fredrick prescribed large amounts of addictive drugs last year to Simpson, Ammerman and other wealthy Los Angeles patients.

Fredrick graduated in 1989 from the New York University School of Medicine and did her residency training in psychiatry at UCLA, where she worked with Gerner. She was issued a medical license in 1990.

After Gerner’s license was suspended in 1994, Fredrick began treating some of his former patients, including Ammerman and Simpson--both of whom had long histories of substance abuse problems.

Investigators began looking into Fredrick’s relationship to Simpson after a series of articles in The Times reported that, according to sources, she had helped Ammerman conduct a drug detoxification program last summer at the producer’s Bel-Air home.

Records show that Fredrick and Ammerman wrote prescriptions for Simpson under a pseudonym. The detox program ended Aug. 15 when Ammerman was found dead in the producer’s pool house. The autopsy report said Ammerman died of a multiple drug overdose, including Valium, cocaine and about four times the lethal limit of morphine.

Fredrick wrote the filmmaker prescriptions for morphine sulfate, Dexadrine, Percocet, Seconal, Valium and other controlled substances, records indicate.

Last August alone, Fredrick prescribed nearly 800 pills and tablets to Simpson that were filled at three West Los Angeles pharmacies, records show.

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After Ammerman died, Fredrick began treating Simpson. Sources say she spoke to the filmmaker at least once a day by phone and visited his house frequently, charging as much as $300 per hour for consultation. Simpson stopped seeing Fredrick in November after a dispute over her billing practices, sources said.

Although Simpson’s condition continued to deteriorate, the filmmaker was able to acquire amphetamines, tranquilizers, sedatives and other controlled substances during the last few months of his life from other doctors. Indeed, several West Los Angeles physicians wrote Simpson prescriptions for controlled substances up until the week before he died.

Law enforcement sources said Fredrick and Gerner are suspected of overprescribing dangerous drugs to individuals they knew--or should have known--were addicts or habitual users. Fredrick also allegedly prescribed controlled substances recently to at least one person who was not a patient and then filled that prescription without the individual’s knowledge or consent, law enforcement sources said.

“It is a doctor’s obligation to know what medications his patient is taking, especially if the patient has seen other practitioners,” said Steve Simmons, a senior investigator for the California Medical Board involved in the Simpson case. “It appears that nobody took into consideration what any other physician was prescribing to Simpson.”

Friday’s raid follows by two days the filing of a wrongful-death lawsuit by Ammerman’s survivors. The lawsuit against Fredrick, Gerner and 17 others alleges that the doctors improperly provided drugs to Ammerman and Simpson.