Radiologist Sentenced for Selling AIDS Drug : Medicine: The man gets probation and a fine after pleading guilty to dispensing the homemade treatment, which he developed with a North Hollywood doctor.

An Orange County radiologist who developed an AIDS drug in his kitchen sink in partnership with a North Hollywood doctor was sentenced Wednesday to three years informal probation and fined $12,000 for his part in advertising and selling the drug.

Stephen Herman, 55, of Villa Park pleaded guilty in Central Municipal Court in Santa Ana to 10 misdemeanor counts in connection with the sale of the drug, called Viroxan.

A North Hollywood doctor, Valentine Birds, 59, lost his medical license in November for working with Herman and dispensing the drug.

The Los Angeles district attorney’s office is studying possible criminal charges against Birds.

Herman, who is disabled and has not practiced medicine since 1984, formulated Viroxan from an alcohol compound in his kitchen sink, investigators said. He could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Herman, in an interview in February, said he began researching the drug after his 28-year-old son died of AIDS in 1987, spent more than $3 million on the project, and treated himself with the drug for a form of cancer.

Four patients died after injecting themselves with Viroxan, officials have said, including a Los Angeles floral designer who lay immobile in his bathtub for several days. Although investigators said there was no proof Viroxan directly caused the deaths, investigators said that at least two of the deaths were probably hastened by the treatment.

Herman agreed in July to surrender his medical license after state prosecutors agreed to drop civil charges of gross negligence, incompetence, dishonesty and other offenses, according to his attorney, Andrew Lloyd.

Kathy Schmidt, a senior investigator with the California Medical Board, said she was satisfied with the outcome, “considering the charges that were filed.”

Schmidt said it was “an appropriate pleading. The reality in these situations is that doctors don’t go to jail.”