Feb 24, 2009 7:11 pm US/Pacific
Doc Pleads No Contest In Bay Area Teen's Suicide
REDWOOD CITY (BCN) ―
A Colorado doctor accused of illegally prescribing anti-depressants to a Stanford University student who later committed suicide entered a surprise no-contest plea to a felony charge Tuesday in San Mateo County Superior Court.
Christian Hageseth, 76, pleaded no contest to one count of practicing medicine without a California medical license, and faces up to a year in county jail, San Mateo County Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said.
Hageseth prescribed anti-depressants to 19-year-old Stanford student John McKay over the Internet in June 2005. McKay committed suicide two months later.
Hageseth's attorney Carleton Briggs said Tuesday it was initially argued that the anti-depressants, which he described as fluoxetine hydrochloride, or a generic form of Prozac, caused McKay to commit suicide at his Menlo Park home. He said, however, that is not the case and that the drugs were not found to be related to the suicide.
Briggs said his client pleaded no contest for health reasons.
"He just had open heart surgery; he really can't continue with all the litigation," Briggs said.
At the core of the case was the question of whether Hageseth broke the law by prescribing drugs to a patient in California, a state where he was not licensed to practice medicine. He did have a license in Colorado but surrendered it in 2005 after McKay's death, Briggs said.
Briggs said the case explored uncharted territory in terms of the regulation of online prescriptions to out-of-state patients.
"This is the first case, as far as I can tell in my research, in the English-speaking world," he said. "That's why it's such an important case, that's why it's such a critical issue."
Briggs argued that individual states shouldn't be able to regulate prescription of medicine in other states. He said such duties should be left to the federal government.
"It's not illegal, per se, to get drugs over the Internet; from studies that I've read, very large numbers of people do it," Briggs said.
"It just cries out for federal regulation, and I'm very leery about an individual state purporting to control interstate commerce," he said.
Wagstaffe said Tuesday's plea ends a three-and-a-half-year prosecution for the district attorney's office.
"We've traveled an awful long road to get to this day, and it's a very good day," Wagstaffe said.
He said the case sets "a good precedent for practicing medicine in one state and going to another state where you're not licensed."
Hageseth, who is free on bail, will be sentenced at 9 a.m. on April 17. In the meantime, he will return to Colorado, Briggs said.
(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Bay City News contributed to this report.)
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