Wednesday, August 29, 2007

More in Case of Murietta Psychiatrist Drug Ring

A followup to a recent story, as reported in the Press Enterprise, which also has mugshot photos of the accused.

A Temecula woman and her two adult sons arrested last week on narcotics charges are suspected associates of a Murrieta psychiatrist who was arrested on suspicion of selling prescriptions for addictive drugs, police said.

Murrieta police Lt. Dennis Vrooman said Tuesday that Janine Keating Hall, 45, Saege Michael Hall, 18, and James Dylan Hall, 21, arrested Friday after their Temecula home was searched by police, received unlawful prescriptions from the doctor. They might also have been selling the drugs they received to others and referring potential clients to him, Vrooman said.

Outside their home Monday, Saege Hall declined to talk about the arrests.

Joel Stanley Dreyer, 69, who previously worked with troubled children at group homes, was arrested in July at his home in the Bear Creek area of Murrieta and has been charged with writing unlawful prescriptions.

Police said he had been writing prescriptions for large amounts of drugs such as painkillers Vicodin and OxyContin for $100 apiece. Investigators said he would meet his clients in the parking lots of local businesses, as well as at his office. Undercover investigators were able to purchase several prescriptions from Dreyer in the months leading up to his arrest.

Vrooman said he was unsure how the Hall family became acquainted with Dreyer.

The arrested Hall brothers are known to police. Their father, Mark Hall, is a well-known former ultimate fighting champion.

Both Saege and Dylan Hall were convicted in connection with a 2003 racial attack on a black student at Murrieta Valley High School. A judge ordered Saege Hall, then 14, to serve several months in juvenile hall for felony assault and injuring someone because of race, a misdemeanor. The prosecution in the case had also tried unsuccessfully to remove Saege from his family.

Dylan Hall pleaded guilty to making racial threats in an argument that took place just before the attack and was given six months probation. Since then, he has been convicted of several other crimes including theft, drug possession, burglary and making terrorist threats, court records show. In their search of the family's Calle Pantano home Friday, police found 38 grams of marijuana and an undisclosed amount of Vicodin and Xanax tablets, a police news release said.

Janine Hall was released on bond Friday and Saege Hall on Saturday. As of Tuesday evening, Dylan Hall was still in jail with bail set at $75,000.

The brothers were charged Monday with possession of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance for sale and prescription drug fraud, court records show. Dylan Hall was also charged with three counts of burglary. He pleaded not guilty to all charges Tuesday.

Janine Hall was charged with possession of a controlled substance and prescription drug fraud.

Janine and Saege Hall's arraignments are scheduled for Sept. 21.

Dreyer, whose license to practice medicine has been suspended pending the outcome of the case, was released from jail Aug. 8 after a judge set his bail at $50,000. He had been held without bail since his arrest July 24. No trial date has been set.

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