Clinic Operator Pleads Guilty

The owner of a Tustin gift shop where a toddler was treated just hours before she died earlier this year pleaded guilty Wednesday to operating an illegal pharmacy.

In exchange for the guilty plea, worked out in a bargain with the Orange County district attorney’s office, Oscar Eduardo King, 36, was fined $200 and put on probation for three years.

“He’s satisfied with the outcome,” King’s attorney, Ron Brower, said of the sentence handed down by Orange County Superior Court. “He wanted to avoid the expense of a trial.”

King was the registered owner of Los Hermanos Gift Shop, where in February 18-month-old Selene Segura Rios was illegally injected with what authorities believe was a mixture of penicillin and eucalyptus. The child, whose family had taken her there for treatment of vomiting and diarrhea, died a short time later.

Two other members of King’s family also involved in the case are fugitives who authorities believe are now living in Mexico.

The two--his mother, Rosa Maria King, 68, and sister, Laura Escalante, 37--have been charged, respectively, with furnishing dangerous drugs and involuntary manslaughter. Two other sisters--Sylvia King Fernandez, 43, and Alexandria King Ko, 41--face charges stemming from separate incidents involving the illegal sale of pharmaceuticals.

According to court documents, Rosa Maria King’s husband, Manuel Javiar King, has been arrested three times in the past decade on suspicion of selling banned medications. One of those arrests, in 1992, led to his conviction for selling illegal drugs.

The death of the Rios girl, among other things, inspired a Times series in May that found the sale of illegal pharmaceuticals to be a major health threat in immigrant communities.

Attorney Brower said this week that he advised his client against pleading guilty. “I didn’t think the district attorney could prove it,” he said. “I counseled him accordingly, but he chose to take their plea bargain against my advice.”

King, who lives in San Diego, was not available for comment, his attorney said.