Oakland Doctor Accused of Unlawfully Prescribing Drugs

The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office filed felony charges today against an Oakland pain management doctor accused of prescribing prescriptions for large quantities of pain-relieving medications and other dangerous drugs. Prosecutors said Dr. Carol Jessop, who practiced out of an office at 5349 College Ave. in Oakland, is charged with four felony counts of unlawful prescription of a controlled substance and two felony counts of providing prescription of a controlled substance to an addicted person.

They said she’s also charged with three misdemeanor counts of excessive prescribing and administering of drugs and one misdemeanor count of possession of a controlled substance. Prosecutors said Jessop pleaded not guilty at her arraignment in Alameda County Superior Court in Hayward today and is scheduled to return to court on Oct. 5. According to the District Attorney’s Office, Jessop wrote nearly 5,000 prescriptions for controlled substances during a 12-month period in 2014 and 2015 and wrote prescriptions for such large quantities of opioids and other dangerous drugs that many major pharmacies began to refuse to fill prescriptions written by her.

After that happened, Jessop gave her patients a flier that listed small pharmacies that would still fill her prescriptions, according to prosecutors. In some instances Jessop wrote prescriptions for more than 10 times the recommended maximum daily dose, prosecutors said.

District Attorney Nancy O’Malley said in a statement, “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 resulted from a joint investigation between her office and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. She said the California Medical Board has already conducted an investigation into Jessop for her prescribing practices and failure to maintain adequate records and after the inquiry was completed Jessop surrendered her medical license earlier this year. Several of Jessop’s patients posted positive reviews of her on the social media web site Yelp.

One person wrote, “Dr. Jessop is extremely kind in her dealings with my great aunt” and said Jessop “has the best bedside manor (sic) that I’ve ever seen and best of all, she truly cared.”

By Bay City News

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