Newhall Doctor Pleads Innocent to Charges of Overprescribing Drugs

A Newhall doctor accused of overprescribing painkillers to patients who said they subsequently became addicted pleaded innocent Wednesday to 10 felony counts of furnishing controlled substances.

Dr. Sandra Soho, 47, allegedly made out prescriptions for codeine-fortified painkillers without giving patients thorough examinations to determine if the drugs were necessary.

One patient told Los Angeles County sheriff’s investigators that she received prescriptions for 4,300 painkillers in a year, while others said they received from 1,650 to 3,600 tablets over periods ranging from 3 1/2 to 5 1/2 months.

Soho, who was Dr. Stanley Soho until a 1986 sex-change operation, entered the pleas during an arraignment in Newhall Municipal Court.

The physician refused to answer reporters’ questions following the brief hearing.

Her attorney, Thomas F. Kascoutas, also declined to comment, saying that he did not want to reveal his defense strategy to prosecutors.

A preliminary hearing was scheduled for July 30 in Newhall Municipal Court.

Soho, who lives in Hollywood, was arrested April 17 after two patients complained to sheriff’s narcotics investigators that they had become addicted to drugs she had prescribed.

One of the patients said she went to the doctor seeking relief from headaches and back pain but was given a prescription for 100 codeine painkillers after a rudimentary examination.

She soon began taking the pills “to help her get through the day,” according to a sheriff’s report filed with court papers.

Soho was barred from practicing medicine from 1981 to 1984 after state medical examiners found her conduct incompetent and corrupt.

She later purchased the practice of Dr. Milos Klvana, a home birthing advocate, who was sentenced in February to 53 years to life on charges that he had killed eight infants and a fetus.