The indictment charges Stan Xuhui Li with two counts of second- degree manslaughter for recklessly causing the overdose deaths of Joseph Haeg and Nicholas Rappold, prosecutor said.
Stan Xuhui Li is charged with homicide for allegedly causing the overdose deaths of two patients.
A Hamilton doctor was arraigned in court in New York City this morning after he was charged in the overdose deaths of two patients.
Stan Xuhui Li, an anesthesiologist for Hamilton Anesthesia Associates, was charged in a 219 count indictment in New York Superior Court this morning following a two-year investigation into his prescribing practices at a pain management clinic he operated in Queens.
The indictment charges Li, 58, with two counts of second- degree manslaughter for recklessly causing the overdose deaths of Joseph Haeg and Nicholas Rappold, according to the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor for the City of New York. Both men died within days of receiving medication from Li, prosecutors said.
Li also faces seven counts of reckless endangerment, three in the first degree, for allegedly demonstrating indifference to human life, prosecutors said. Two of those charges relate to the deaths of Kevin Kingsley and Michael Cornetta, who died from overdoses after receiving prescriptions from Li.
The charges were handed up by a special grand jury, who heard evidence over a six-month period.
Li is also charged with 180 counts of criminal sale of a prescription for a controlled dangerous substance. The remaining charges relate to an alleged scheme to defraud Medicare and Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield and to interfere in an investigation conducted by the New York State Health Department’s office of professional medical conduct, a disciplinary body that oversees physicians.
Li was arrested on Nov. 27 at approximately 8 a.m. by Hamilton police near his Secretario Way home. He waved extradition during a hearing in Mercer County Superior Court yesterday and was transported to New York.
In November 2011, following a year-long investigation into his prescribing practices, Li was charged with 15 counts of criminal sale of prescription drugs, according to the Special Narcotics Prosecutor.
Aaron Wallenstein, a New York attorney who represents Li on the drug sale charges, did not respond to a request for comment yesterday
Hamilton Anesthesia Associates has admitting privileges at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in Hamilton. Li was suspended with no privileges at the hospital after he was initially charged in November 2011.
Li’s license to practice medicine in New York was suspended in January by the state Board of Health. A judicial order handed down in April prohibits Li from practicing medicine in all states until the conclusion of his case, according to the New Jersey Department of Law and Safety's division of consumer affairs.