ER doctor pleads guilty in drug case

AUSTIN (AP) — A Central Texas physician whose son died of an accidental drug overdose has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.

No sentencing date has been set for Dr. David James Jacob y of Austin, who faces up to 15 years in federal prison.

The former emergency room physician pleaded guilty Thursday in a case that prosecutors say involved distribution of hydrocodone.

A defense attorney says the 63-year-old doctor was a drug addict. Jacoby last May had his medical license suspended.

The body of 24-year-old Brandon Jacoby was discovered in December 2010 in the home he shared with his father. The son was on probation for a drug crime.

Investigators say the doctor wrote unlawful prescriptions to people who knew his son and the scheme resulted in the death.

Last year, the Texas Medical Board declared Jacoby a "continuing threat to the public welfare due to his lack of competence, impaired status or failure to care adequately for his patients."

He was an emergency room physician at The Hospital at Westlake Medical Center. Jacoby resigned about four months earlier due to "personal reasons" after his son's death.

A toxicology report revealed Brandon Jacoby died from a mixture of drugs in his system. The main three included a muscle relaxer, pain killer and anxiety medication -- a popular combo that can produce a heroin-like high.

The medical board found that between 2009 and 2010, David Jacoby wrote prescriptions to Brandon's friends and a family member for non-medical purposes with the understanding that he and his son would receive a portion of the pills prescribed. Pharmacy records also show that since Brandon Jacoby's death, the doctor continued to prescribe hydrocodone and carisoprodol to a number of the same people who were his son's friends.