PATIENT'S DEATH: LV DOCTOR A KILLER, POLICE SAY

Authorities Allege Overdose After Illegal Sale Of Painkiller

A Las Vegas doctor with a history of medical malpractice was booked
on a murder charge Wednesday in connection with illegally selling
prescription drugs that led to a patient's overdose death in 2005,
authorities said.

Through a company called Doc 24-7, Harriston Lee Bass Jr. made house
calls to patients, acting more like a drug pusher than a physician,
said Lt. Matthew Alberto, supervisor of the Department of Public
Safety's PharmNET Taskforce.

In October 2005, one of the patients, 38-year-old Gina Micali,
overdosed on hydrocodone, the pain reliever marketed as Vicodin and
Lortab, among other brands, Alberto said.

"He (Bass) had no license to dispense these controlled substances,
and as a result, he was in violation of our controlled-substance
laws," said Conrad Hafen, chief deputy attorney general.

Under state law, if someone dies as a result of drugs they received
illegally from a dealer, the seller can be charged with murder.

"He is selling a Schedule III substance illegally, and so I would say
it's a form of drug dealing," Hafen said.

Bass was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on a
second-degree murder charge, with 21 counts of selling a controlled
substance and six counts of possession of a controlled substance with
intent to sell. He is being held on $370,000 bond.

Hafen said no evidence of premeditation existed, a necessary element
for a first-degree murder charge.

Bass' arrest followed an eight-month investigation into the
allegations of drug distributing and into Micali's death. Micali died
in her Las Vegas home. The coroner ruled her death an accidental overdose.

Attorney Patti Wise, who is representing Micali's family in a civil
action filed against Bass two months ago in District Court, said
Micali first went to Bass for help in dealing with chronic pain from
sports injuries. She liked the convenience of a home doctor visit.

Bass visited Micali and sold her the hydrocodone she would overdose
on, Wise said. Bass never said he was not authorized to sell the
drugs, Wise said.

According to the criminal complaint filed against Bass, a report by
the Nevada Board of Pharmacy said he was treating Micali for chronic
pain, which was outside the scope of his practice. He was not
registered with the Nevada Board of Medical Examiners as a pain
management practitioner and did not have the training to treat
chronic-pain patients, the complaint said.

It said he failed to perform the proper tests to determine the source
of Micali's pain and instead sold her excessive quantities of the
drug, disregarding any side effects or potential abuse.

Alberto said Bass was getting the drugs from a pharmaceutical
wholesale company in Illinois.

Bonnie Brand, legal counsel for the Board of Medical Examiners, said
that investigators found more than 10,000 doses of prescription drugs
and more than $150,000 in cash in a June 1 raid of Bass' home. The
home is in the southwest valley at 7732 Spanish Bay Drive in the golf
course community Villas at Spanish Trail #2.

In the search, investigators said they discovered documents relating
to other patients who were buying hydrocodone from Bass.

When interviewed, several of the patients confirmed Bass was their
supplier, selling to them about once a month, Hafen said.

"He was going to their homes, he was going to their apartments, he
was going to hotel rooms," Hafen said.

But Bass' attorney, David Phillips, said his client is facing
trumped-up charges.

"He followed the law," Phillips said of his client. "He does not
prescribe medications he isn't allowed to. From what I know about the
charges and the complaint against him, this particular person has
been a patient for a long time and taking this particular medication.
This person decided to check out early, and we don't know why."

Bass previously was found guilty of medical malpractice by the Board
of Medical Examiners in connection with the deaths of two patients in
the 1990s. The board determined that Bass failed to care properly for
the patients, both of whom died after surgery he performed.

Bass was found guilty of gross and repeated malpractice, but the
board did not take away his license.

He was given three years of probation and ordered that another
board-certified surgeon help him during any surgeries. He was to take
120 hours of medical education and a surgery exam. And he was not to
perform any laparoscopic procedures, minimally invasive surgeries.

Bass appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court and lost.

A decade later, Bass still has not completed his education, said Tony
Clark, executive director of the Board of Medical Examiners.

Bass' medical license was suspended after an emergency meeting of the
board in June, Brand said. That meeting was held two weeks after the
raid on Bass' home.

According to the minutes of the board's June 16 meeting, held in
Reno, 47 cases had been filed against Bass that alleged
over-prescribing. Nine cases were analyzed by the board, Brand said,
and it charged Bass with committing malpractice by prescribing
controlled substances and practicing beyond his qualifications.

Six of those cases involved patients who died: five overdoses and one
suicide, she said.

According to minutes of the meeting: "It cannot be ruled out in any
of those cases that Dr. Bass' prescription practices at least
contributed to the patients' deaths. The profiles of those patients
strongly suggest they were addicts, and there is no evidence Dr. Bass
ever discussed addiction with any of them."

But Hafen said that not enough evidence existed to charge him
criminally in the cases. "There is no evidence at this time that the
defendant was illegally selling controllable substances to those
individuals," Hafen said.

Shortly after that meeting, Bass was told that his license was being
suspended, which meant he could no longer practice medicine in Nevada.

Micali's case was not among the nine the board reviewed, Brand said.
She said the board had just learned of the case and planned to
include it in the proceedings against Bass as early as this week.

He was scheduled to appear before the board during its Dec. 1-2
meeting, but the hearing was canceled because additional charges were
filed against him.

Another hearing is scheduled on Jan. 30 and 31 in Reno, but that
might be affected by the criminal investigation, Brand said.

Phillips said Bass was not the only physician prescribing medications
to those patients. Phillips said in reviewing coroner's reports on
those deaths, names of other physicians were listed.

"Why single out this one doctor," he said. "Dr. Bass is not about to
roll over and play dead and let them have their way with him. He's
fighting back. We're going to take on the state and the medical
board. This is going to go all the way, and it's going to be a
knockdown, drag-out.

"I feel really good that I am going to be able to set him free," he said.

Bass received his medical degree from Howard University's College of
Medicine in 1980. He held a Illinois license that expired in 1987.