An Oakland doctor pleaded not guilty to six counts of felonies and four counts of misdemeanors on Thursday, an Alameda County district attorney said.
Doctor Carol Jessop was arrested for suspicion of for four felony counts of unlawful prescription of a controlled substance, two felony counts of providing prescription of a controlled substance, three misdemeanor counts of excessive prescribing and administering of drugs and one misdemeanor count of possession of a controlled substance, District Attorney Nancy O’Malley said.
Jessop had a pain management and palliative care clinic in Oakland where she wrote nearly 5,000 prescriptions for controlled substances since 2014, O’Malley said. Jessop is accused of writing large doses of drugs like opioids, sometimes more than 10 times the recommended daily dose.
O’Malley said major pharmacies began to refuse to fill prescriptions written by Jessop. As a result, Jessop began handing out flyers to her patients of small pharmacies that would fill her prescriptions.
"We as a community place deep trust in those who are trained and licensed to practice medicine, and Dr. Jessop failed to abide by the basic standard of care and professionalism we expect of our health care providers," O’Malley said.
The case into Jessop’s charges began from a joint investigation between the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office and the Drug Enforcement Agency.
Law enforcement found boxes of oxycodone, oxycontin, morphine and methadone when they served a search warrant into Jessop’s office and car, O’Malley said.
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Jessop surrendered her medical license earlier this year, after a medical board conducted an investigation into her prescribing practices.
She is ordered to appear in court again in October.
