Patients Speak Out After Doctor's Arrest

By Ashli Sims, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- Patients of a Tulsa doctor accused of peddling pills are speaking out.  Dr. David Crass faces 34 counts of illegally distributing drugs and one count of Medicaid fraud.  Some of his patients are stunned.  Others are angry.

One woman, whose mother was a patient of Dr. Crass, says he's no more than a common drug dealer.  Another woman, who saw Crass for three years, says she now doesn't know where to turn.

When she saw her doctor's office on the news, Rosa Perez says she thought her mind was once again playing tricks on her.

"I thought I was imagining it because of so many hallucinations I had had," said Rosa Perez.

But, it wasn't all in her head.  Her psychiatrist of three years, Dr. David Crass, was behind bars, accused of peddling pills and overprescribing his patients.

"Lexipro at first, Xanax, Somas, and Lortab, 100 a month," said Rosa Perez.

From her laundry list of pills, it seems like Perez was one of the patients being overprescribed.  She was up to ten different prescriptions a day.

"I thought he was trying to help me. I thought he cared about me because he didn't want me to have pain," said Rosa Perez.

Jennifer Wade doesn't believe Dr. Crass cared about his patients at all.  She's suing him for medical negligence because her mother died from an overdose while in his care.  

In the lawsuit, she says Crass didn't notice her mother was addicted and he even mailed a prescription to her Kansas home, after she died.

Perez's prescriptions came to an abrupt end with a letter last June.

"To my patients who have been using medications as prescribed, I am so terribly sorry you will now have to find another source for pain treatment," Rosa Perez read from a letter.

She says that's when things really spiraled out of control.  Her husband left because he couldn't deal with her behavior.

"He said I would get up and touch the walls and talk to myself and cry out loud and everything," said Rosa Perez.

Perez spent ten days in detox.  Now, she says she can't get her records from Crass' office.  And, she says she can't find a new doctor without them.

"I was then thinking he was a good doctor cause he would listen to me. Nobody really ever would listen to me. So, he would listen to me. And, that's all I ever really wanted was someone to listen to me," said Rosa Perez.

Perez says some doctors seem like they don't want to help her after they find out she's one of Dr. Crass' patients.