O.C. Charges Family Over Illicit Clinics

Moving to shut down a family business of back-room medical clinics, authorities Friday arrested one person suspected of dispensing banned Mexican pharmaceuticals and continued to search for two others who might have fled the country.

Charges filed late Thursday by Orange County prosecutors allege that members of the King family peddled illegal medicines from gift stores, including a Tustin shop where a toddler was treated just hours before her death earlier this year.

The filings bring to five the number of King family members charged over the last month in connection with the sale of illicit pharmaceuticals, which a Times series in May found to be a major health threat in immigrant communities.

Comparing the family operation to a sophisticated drug cartel, Tustin police Lt. Mike Shanahan said the Kings have grown rich by supplying banned drugs to Latino immigrants in need of proper medical treatment.

“If the King family was dealing in heroin, or cocaine or methamphetamines, and distributing them . . . we would have no trouble looking at them as significant criminals in our society,” he said.

The three people charged are Rosa Maria King, 68, her son Oscar Eduardo King, 36, and her daughter Rosa Alexandria King, 41. They face multiple misdemeanor counts, which investigators said are the most severe charges they could file under current law.

Oscar King is the registered owner of a Tustin gift shop where 18-month-old Selene Segura Rios was treated just hours before she died. He was convicted in 1992 of selling illegal pregnancy drugs to women at an Orange swap meet.

Tustin police arrested Oscar King late Friday on suspicion of illegally distributing pharmaceutical supplies. He was taken into custody after officers staked out a McDonald’s in Chula Vista where he and his estranged wife typically meet to swap custody of their children, Shanahan said. He was being held at Orange County Jail on $50,000 bail.

Rosa Alexandria King was charged with violating her probation by possessing illegal pharmaceuticals during an arrest last month, police said. Investigators had picked her up for allegedly failing to pay a court fine levied last year following a conviction for selling misbranded drugs in Santa Ana, police said.

Rosa Maria King, the matriarch of the family, is listed as the owner of Adriana’s gift shop in Santa Ana, where undercover investigators last month bought illegal pharmaceuticals from another of her daughters, Sylvia King Fernandez, court records show.

Fernandez, 43, was charged with selling misbranded drugs in July. A fifth member of the family, Laura Escalante, 37, was charged last month with involuntary manslaughter in the death of baby Selene. Escalante, known to patients as “Dr. Laura,” supervised the toddler’s treatment, police alleged in court papers.

Investigators believe that Escalante and the other family members abruptly left their jobs and homes and fled to Mexico.

“My suspicions are that the entire family has been spooked,” Shanahan said. “The outward appearances are that these people have gone on an extended family vacation.”

Carlos King, who operates a dentistry next-door to Adriana’s gift shop, confirmed that both Rosa Kings--his mother and his sister--moved to Tijuana. He said he did not know when they will return.

He also said he knew nothing about the charges filed against them.

Rosa Alexandria King’s attorney, Mark Fredrick, said his client is due back in the United States in about a week and a half. He declined to comment on the charges until he had spoken to her.

Many of the drugs found in the underground clinics that cater to poor immigrants are banned or restricted in the United States because of serious and sometimes fatal side effects.

A federal grand jury is conducting a separate investigation into claims that the King family has operated a well-organized and lucrative operation smuggling such medicine into the country. Running these back-room clinics can net as much as $1,000 a day, district attorney’s office investigators said in court documents.

Some members of the King family have extensive records of selling or trying to smuggle into the country illegal pharmaceuticals, according to a search warrant filed by investigators.

Rosa Maria King’s husband, Manuel Javiar King, has been arrested three times for selling illegal pharmaceuticals in the last decade, according to the warrant. He was convicted of selling illegal pregnancy drugs in 1992, police said.

Several King family members were investigated in 1998 after 13-month-old Christopher Martinez died following an injection at a Santa Ana store-front clinic.

Police probed allegation by witnesses that King family members were the source of the drugs administered to the Martinez boy. But authorities said they have no evidence of the claims and have filed no charges.

The Martinez case prompted the county to form the Orange County Safe Healthcare Coalition to educate residents about the perils of back-room clinics.

Local police departments have also cracked down on vendors who sell illegal medicinal drugs. In June, a team of Costa Mesa police swept through a swap meet in search of vendors illegally selling prescription drugs. The raid netted six arrests.

Times staff writer Kate Folmar contributed to this report.

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The King Family

* Rosa Maria King, 68, is charged with misdemeanor counts of knowingly owning a business that sold misbranded and dangerous drugs. She is the registered owner of Adriana’s gift store in Santa Ana, where undercover investigators bought illegal pharmaceuticals last month. Police believe she may have fled to Mexico.

Four of King’s children have also have been charged:

* Oscar Eduardo King, 36, is charged with misdemeanor counts of knowingly owning a business that sold misbranded and dangerous drugs. He is the registered owner of Los Hermanos, the Tustin gift store where an 18-month-old girl was treated earlier this year just hours before her death. Police believe that he may have fled to Mexico.

* Rosa Alexandria King, 41. She is charged with misdemeanor probation violations, stemming from a conviction last year of selling illegal pharmaceuticals in Santa Ana. Police believe she may have fled to Mexico.

* Laura Escalante, 37. She was charged in July with involuntary manslaughter in the death of the toddler who was treated at Los Hermanos gift store in Tustin. Police allege that Escalante supervised the treatment. Police believe she fled to Mexico.

* Sylvia King Fernandez, 43. She was charged in July with misdemeanor counts and one felony count in connection with the sale of illegal pharmaceuticals to undercover investigators at Adriana’s gift store in Santa Ana. Fernandez remains in Orange County and is scheduled to appear in court Friday.

Sources: Orange County court records.