Doctor to plead guilty to selling prescriptions at coffeehouses

An Orange County doctor has agreed to serve at least eight years in federal prison for illegally selling prescriptions for powerful painkillers and other drugs out of Starbucks coffeehouses, according to court records.

Alvin Ming-Czech Yee, 44, of Mission Viejo routinely wrote prescriptions for highly abused medications to patients with no legitimate need for the medications, authorities have alleged in court papers.

Yee agreed to plead guilty to seven counts of illegal distribution of a controlled substance by a practitioner and to serve eight to 10 years in prison, according to a plea agreement filed in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana. Yee admitted that he was guilty of distributing oxycodone, alprazolam and amphetamine salts to undercover officers posing as patients and to a confidential source working for the Drug Enforcement Administration, according to the plea agreement.

Yee was arrested in October 2011 at his Irvine office and was later released on bond. He was accused of selling prescriptions for cash after cursory examinations often conducted in coffeehouses and other unusual locales, according to a federal search warrant affidavit.

Yee is scheduled to appear in an Orange County court April 17 to enter his plea.

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