A pain management doctor who reportedly filled prescriptions for pharmacy killer David Laffer has been arrested.
The charges against Stan Li, of Hamilton, N.J., were for a different case. Prosecutors allege he sold prescriptions to a man who later died of an overdose.
Michael Cornetta, of Queens, died a year ago from an overdose after a week on life support. Authorities alleged Li had provided him with dozens of prescriptions for controlled substances, including oxycodone.
Li was arrested Saturday at his Queens clinic, where law-enforcement officials say he would see as many as 120 patients a day on the weekends.
The New York City special prosecutor's office also is investigating Li's alleged sale of prescriptions to other patients. It says nine of those people died of drug overdoses.
A criminal indictment alleges Li wrote more than 17,000 controlled substances to his pain-management patients over the last two and a half years. About 65 percent of those prescriptions were for oxycodone or other highly addictive opiates and more than half of Li's patients were between the ages of 21 and 40, according to the indictment.
Li was charged with 15 counts of criminal sale of a prescription for a controlled substance and five counts of reckless endangerment in connection with illegal prescription sales to Cornetta.
Last week, Newsday detailed how Laffer prescription-shopped before killing four people during a Long Island pharmacy robbery. It said Laffer filled 24 prescriptions from Li.
The name of Li's attorney was not immediately known.
Laffer was sentenced this month to life in prison without parole for the June robbery of a Medford, N.Y., pharmacy where he also killed four people.
