Dr. Harriston Bass appears Tuesday in Justice Court. On Wednesday, he was bound over for trial in District Court on charges of second-degree murder and drug dealing. Photo by Gary Thompson.

Dr. Harriston Bass, the physician accused of illegally selling prescription drugs to patients, at least one of whom died, was bound over Wednesday to District Court where he will face charges of murder and drug dealing.

Authorities say Bass, who is out on $200,000 bail, prescribed hydrocodone to 38-year-old Gina Micali, who died of an overdose Oct. 6, 2005. As a licensed doctor, Bass was authorized to prescribe hydrocodone, which is found in such drugs as Vicodin and Lortab.

But authorities allege Bass, who made house calls, also sold hydrocodone pills to Micali and other patients, and drug sales are illegal without a state dispensing license from the Nevada State Board of Pharmacy.

Justice of the Peace Joe Bonaventure said Bass will stand trial on one count of second-degree murder, 11 counts of sale of a controlled substance and six counts of possession of a controlled substance.

Two days before her death on Oct. 6. Micali purchased 300 hydrocodone pills from Bass, Chief Deputy Attorney General Conrad Hafen said. Bass also gave her a prescription for the same drug.

"Dr. Bass could always prescribe prescriptions," Hafen said. "What he couldn't do is he couldn't sell those prescription drugs to his patients."

During the preliminary hearing, Hafen called to the witness stand a state pharmacy board employee who testified that Bass had called the office asking about a dispensing license. But Bass, who offered his home as an office location, was not eligible at the time and never registered with the state to dispense drugs. According to the board's policies, the doctor must have an office.

According to the Clark County coroner, Micali's overdose was accidental. The amount of hydrocodone the coroner found in her system was inconsistent with a suicide.

But David Lee Phillips, the lawyer defending Bass, said he believed Micali committed suicide or overdosed by disregarding her doctor's instructions to take only four pills a day. Bass is not responsible for her death, Phillips said.

"I thought the judge just didn't get our points," Phillips said, standing beside Bass outside the courtroom. He would not allow Bass to speak to media.

Phillips said he believed Bonaventure's decision to allow the charges against Bass to stand will produce a chilling effect on doctors in Nevada, forcing them to go to other states.

"I just think the doctors in this state are in trouble," he said, adding that he expected the case to be dismissed in District Court.

In some states, doctors are not required to get a dispensing registration to distribute drugs.

"He does not need a dispensing license. I've gotten calls from as far as Virginia," Phillips said, referring to concerned doctors who have contacted him about Bass' case.

Hydrocodone is a controlled substance under Nevada law, said Louis Ling, general counsel for the state's pharmacy board. While drugs considered dangerous in Nevada encompass all sorts of prescription drugs, a controlled substance refers to drugs with addictive properties, and they are sorted into five schedules, he said.

Under no circumstances can a doctor in Nevada distribute any prescription drugs, other than marked drug samples, unless he or she has a distributing license, Ling said.

"There are over 200 doctors in this state who have done it right," Hafen said, referring to the number of physicians with a distributing license in Nevada.