LAKE ELSINORE: Lake Elsinore doctor arrested in murder case

LAKE ELSINORE ---- A Lake Elsinore doctor was arrested and booked Tuesday morning on suspicion of second-degree murder in connection with the death of a man who authorities say died from an overdose of drugs prescribed to him by the doctor.Dr. Wesley Duane Albert, 78, was arrested by state Department of Justice agents at his home on Applewood Way in Lake Elsinore.According to the Medical Board of California's Web site, Albert's medical license expired April 30 and he had not paid his renewal fee. Therefore, he is not allowed to practice medicine, according to the site.The arrest Tuesday culminates a 10-month investigation into allegations that Albert was writing prescriptions for large amounts of drugs.During the investigation, undercover agents discovered Albert was running a prescription mill from a room at the Lake Elsinore Hotel & Casino, said Gareth Lacy, spokesman for the Department of Justice."It looks like this was an informal operation run mostly through word of mouth," Lacy said Tuesday by telephone from Sacramento.The operation from the hotel room had been going on for "at least several months," he said, adding that he is not sure if Albert, a general practitioner, was issuing allegedly illegal prescriptions from anywhere else.Albert was doling out hundreds of prescriptions from the room for potentially dangerous drugs such as Vicodin, Xanax, Oxycontin and Soma, agents said.It was an overdose of Soma prescribed by Albert that killed 28-year-old Jason Morgan, who was found dead in his Riverside home in November, Lacy said.Also known as Carisoprodol, Soma is a skeletal relaxant prescribed for treatment of acute musculoskeletal pain, Lacy said. Investigators found Morgan had 30 bottles of drugs Albert had prescribed, the spokesman added.Morgan's death about six months ago came as officials were still investigating Albert's activities."We arrested him as soon as we could," Lacy said. "We had to make sure the investigation was complete and we had enough evidence against him."The investigation was launched after agents received a tip following the arrest of a woman in April 2007 in Encinitas on suspicion of possessing unauthorized prescription drugs, authorities said.Agents found that Albert was prescribing more than five times the normal amount of drugs, sometimes up to 500 pills per person per month, Lacy said. The doctor would then pocket between $50 and $100 cash per prescription, agents allege.Albert was writing prescriptions without actually checking the medical conditions of those who received them, authorities say."These were people who didn't need medication for any illness, but wanted them for their addiction or to get high," Lacy said.Albert was booked at Southwest Detention Center in French Valley on suspicion of murder and issuing illegal prescriptions. He was being held Tuesday night in lieu of $2 million bail, jail records state.Albert is scheduled to be arraigned at Southwest Justice Center on Thursday.According to the state Medical Board, Albert graduated from the UC Irvine College of Medicine in 1962 and first received his license to practice medicine in California in March 1975.His case to some extent echoes that of another local doctor who was arrested in July at his Bear Creek home in Murrieta.Joel Dreyer, whose medical license has since been suspended, was accused of writing illegal prescriptions to people he had not examined, authorities said.The Dreyer investigation started after Murrieta police Detective John Nelson was contacted in November 2006 by a man whose sister died of a prescription drug overdose at her Newport Beach home.The woman was found dead on Christmas Day 2005, and her brother told detectives he found evidence of prescriptions issued to his sister by Dreyer for Oxycontin and Ambien, according to court documents.An Orange County coroner's report states that the woman had more than 10 different prescription drugs in her system when she died, a death determined to be an accidental overdose, documents state.Riverside County prosecutors have since agreed to dismiss state charges against Dreyer, who is now being prosecuted in federal court.