Under the Knife: A Beautiful Woman, a Phony Doctor, and a Shocking Homicide (28 page)

He tried to get past his feelings of anger about the whole situation. “After all,” he said, “my losses pale when compared to the anguish of the Cruz family. It’s so sad, though, for everyone. I have an overall feeling of heartbreak for so many people.” Greg felt wounded by the way he was treated by Dean and his family. He still felt the pain of the attacks by Detective Della Rocca and Assistant District Attorney Ann Prunty. He also felt his own family’s distress, and their growing concern for him.

He insisted he had no knowledge of Maria Cruz’s death at the time it occurred. He knew he played no role in the cover-up. Someone must have known, though, he thought. It seemed unlikely that Dean would not feel compelled to confide in at least one person. Greg surely hadn’t been Dean’s confidant. If Dean had told him, Greg would have given him an ultimatum: “Either you turn yourself in or I’ll do it for you.” Dean must have known he would react that way.

There were rumors that Mark Ritchey knew—that he was complicit in the hiding of Maria’s body. Greg dismissed that speculation. He didn’t believe Mark was capable of being that callous.

Then there was Patty Rosado. Did Dean tell her in the spring or summer of 2003? Did she figure it out on her own long before Maria’s body was found? Patty hacked into Dean’s computer. She reviewed all of Dean’s files. She was the first person Dean called on the night of April 13, 2003. She was the last person to shelter him before he fled to Costa Rica. Did Patty use her knowledge to leverage Dean
into a sexual relationship? Had she believed that keeping his secret would bind him to her forever?

Many hoped that during the trial all secrets and machinations would be revealed. They awaited Dean’s appearance in court on October 16, 2006.

Ireana and Rodolfo Cruz flew into New York from the Philippines on October 15. They watched as Dean entered New York County Supreme Court wearing jeans, a short-sleeved shirt and a few more pounds on his once-thin frame. Dean stood by his attorney, Anthony Ricco, and faced Judge Gregory Carro.

Carro asked if he wanted to plead guilty to assault in the first degree “under conditions evincing depraved indifference to human life.”

“Yes, Your Honor,” Dean said.

“Is it true that at that time you were addicted to cocaine and were a heavy user?”

“That’s correct,” Dean answered, adding that he was under the influence of cocaine when Maria arrived at his illegal clinic for laser surgery on her tongue.

“You gave her an injection?” the judge asked.

Ireana sobbed gently in the background of Dean’s admission. “Yes, sir,” he said. Then he admitted that when Maria’s seizures began, he called his former neighbor and emergency room doctor David Goldschmitt for advice. The doctor urged him to take Maria to a hospital immediately.

“You ignored that advice?” Carro asked.

“Yes,” Dean said, explaining that he was too frightened to face the consequences of continuing to practice medicine without a license.

Anthony Ricco and Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Ann Prunty negotiated a deal for Dean Faiello. In exchange for his guilty plea to first-degree assault, the state dropped the second-degree murder charge. Instead
of facing 25 years to life in prison, Dean agreed to 20 years of jail time.

There would be no trial—no revelations—no answers to many of the remaining questions.

One irrefutable truth remained: Maria Cruz is dead—her young life snuffed out before its time in a needless, heedless moment. Tes Cruz Lara laid Maria’s death at the doorstep of the United States: “I had no idea this could happen in America. I wanted to come here myself. After this, I cannot come here. I cannot live here and always remember my sister.”

In her diary, Tes wrote to Maria:

“Someday I will see you once more. Until then I rest in your memories to keep you alive in my heart.”

WITH THE DEATH OF MARIA CRUZ, WE AGAIN WITNESS THE
lingering devastation of one person’s murder. The tendrils of pain stretch beyond immediate family and friends to encompass and damage the lives of a long list of people whose paths directly or indirectly intersect with the crime.

It affects all of us. Each of us loses a little bit of our humanity with the unwarranted death of an individual. From Maria’s loss, there are lessons to be learned—wisdom to be gained—a knowledge with the potential to protect our own lives and the lives of those we hold dear.

The most obvious is that substance abuse, whether through prescription drugs, illegal drugs or alcohol, is a road to destruction. Had Dean Faiello lived a life of relative sobriety, odds are he would have never made the bad choices that destroyed relationships, smashed his future and ultimately led to the death of another human being.

A bigger life lesson, though, is the danger we all face when we place the pursuit of exterior beauty over the maintenance of our own health. In 2004, phony doctor Luis Sanchez was sentenced to 5 years in prison for injecting hundreds of patients with industrial strength silicone. Two years after his conviction, many are still being
treated for pain, scarring and disfigurement. When we value the least expensive option like Botox, silicon or collagen injections at a friend’s house or services at a cut-rate makeshift office by someone with dubious credentials over the more expensive services of a trained professional, we put ourselves at serious risk.

The aging of the baby boomer generation has ushered in a greater acceptance of beauty procedures and cosmetic surgery. Laser machines popped up everywhere in response to consumer demand. Most operators are conscientious and trained. A minority—including licensed physicians who grabbed a laser and a weekend course—forge forward providing treatment with only money on their minds.

“Entrepreneurial types feel these procedures can be done by anyone,” Dr. Roy Geronemus said. “But you need training in the problem as well as the device. You have to exercise clinical judgment, because lasers interact with the skin in different ways depending on the individual’s age, skin type and color. It is not like a point-and-shoot camera.”

For most boomers, removal of unwanted hair by laser or electrolysis is the only treatment they seek. For others, elective cosmetic surgery is a rare indulgence to satisfy a plummeting ego, enhance employment prospects or revitalize a relationship. There are those, however, who get as hooked on it as Dean got hooked on drugs. Obsessive reliance on these artificial body enhancements produces people like Michael Jackson, whose sculpted faces look more alien than human. The lesser known American socialite Joycelyn Wildenstein may be an even starker example of plastic surgery abuse than Jackson. After finding her husband in bed with a 21-year-old, Wildenstein reportedly spent more than three million dollars on cosmetic procedures. She has silicone injections in her lips,
cheeks and chin, implants in her chin and lips, at least one face lift and eye reconstruction to make her resemble the large, wild cats her husband loved. Recently, a plastic surgery website dubbed her “the world’s scariest celebrity.”

For younger generations, facial surgery is seen as a preventative measure to slow the onset of wrinkles and sagging skin. The demand for breast augmentation is at an all-time high. Many younger women think only of improving their image and never stop to consider the long-term consequences of breast implants. Breast-feeding of a baby is eliminated as an option, a naturally erogenous zone is often numbed to sensation and, in all likelihood, the surgery will need to be repeated every ten years.

Maria Cruz had successful breast augmentation and facial surgery before she ever visited Dean Faiello. She apparently researched the physicians for those procedures very thoroughly. So why didn’t she take the same care with Dean? When she didn’t, she made herself vulnerable, as cosmetic surgery is the only field of medicine where invasive procedures are often pursued based on a self-diagnosis of need instead of on an objective medical assessment.

Even cosmetic surgery performed by a degreed medical professional comes with risks that we ignore at our own peril. Although the vast majority of doctors do not recklessly perform procedures without a thorough understanding of all the possible ramifications, there are twisted practitioners who have forsaken their oaths in the pursuit of a dollar—physicians who take short cuts instead of obtaining in-depth training, some of whom are not even competent to practice. It is vital to check the professional standing of any new doctor before undergoing any procedure at his hand.

Kay Kelly Cregan of County Cork, Ireland, came to
Manhattan for an ordinary face lift. After reading a positive article in her local newspaper about the celebrity clients of Dr. Michael Sachs, she entrusted her life to his care and looked no further.

She most likely would have selected another physician if she had better researched his record. In less than ten years, Sachs had settled thirty lawsuits for botched operations—more than any other doctor in the state of New York. Hours after her procedure, Cregan went into cardiac arrest. She died two days later on St. Patrick’s Day, 2004.

That same year, Olivia Goldsmith, author of
The First Wives Club
, visited the Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital for a chin tuck. She, too, experienced cardiac arrest, slipped into a coma and died. The state health department fined the hospital $20,000 for a serious breakdown in patient care.

The year these two women died, there were more than 1.9 million cosmetic surgical procedures performed in the United States. Most of them were done to the patients’ satisfaction and without serious detrimental effects to their health. To the families of Kay and Olivia, however, the success stories of others pale in comparison to the loss that darkens every day of their lives.

The most important thing to remember when seeking one of these treatments is that elective surgery is never an emergency. Take the time to research your physician. Finding the right doctor can be a byzantine effort and accessing a doctor’s record is often a convoluted process.

In some states, a system has evolved to provide easy access to needed information on line. In others, it is necessary to grapple with a bureaucracy that obstructs or delays full public disclosure. No matter how complex the task, don’t proceed with any elective surgery without knowing your doctor’s record.

You also need to be certain your doctor really has the credentials he claims. Watch for red flags—anything that indicates an abnormal medical process. If you visit a person claiming to be a dermatologist or plastic surgeon and you are whisked through with minimal paperwork, be concerned. An ethical physician will be certain to obtain extensive medical history, provide you with information on exactly what will be done, let you know what to expect afterwards and give you a clear understanding of any risks you may face. When asked to sign an informed consent document, don’t do so until you have a genuine awareness of what lies ahead. Every invasive procedure—every anesthetic—carries a risk. If your questions are not receiving thorough and satisfactory answers, head for the door.

The practitioners who claim to be licensed physicians and are not create yet another trap for the unwary. Dean Faiello did so verbally, but others take it even further. They plaster “M.D.” after their names, steal school records and medical credentials from real doctors and advertise board certifications they do not possess.

The most notorious fake, Gerald Barnes, pretended to be a doctor for more than twenty years after attaining the documentation of a real doctor with the same name. His ruse was so perfectly executed, he contracted with the federal government to provide physicals for FBI agents in Los Angeles without being caught in his scam. Barnes was arrested and served sentences in jail more than once. After every release from prison, he resumed his medical practice. Now, at the age of 73, he is serving time for his fifth conviction for practicing medicine without a license.

He is only one of many people impersonating doctors in hospitals, clinics and private practice. David Tremoglie saw more than 500 patients and wrote thousands of
prescriptions as a psychiatrist at a mental health clinic in Pennsylvania. He served 3 years in jail. In the same state, Douglas Lenhart went to prison in 2004 for attempting the castration of a transgendered woman in her dining room. Dennis Roark treated more than a thousand patients in Michigan and assisted in hundreds of surgeries—including heart bypass operations—before he was caught and sentenced to 6 to 14 years behind bars.

According to Ronda Lustman of the attorney general’s office in New York, “There is a lot of illegal practice in New York with the highest concentration in Chinatown. Much of what we see involves fraudulent diplomas from the Dominican Republic and forged credentials from medical school.” In fact, investigators in New York found 580 cases of phony doctors practicing medicine in a four-year period. In Florida, the Department of Health created an unlicensed activity office in 1998. In fiscal year 2003, they investigated 765 complaints and scored 101 convictions for the unlicensed practice of medicine.

Contact state officials to confirm that your doctor is licensed to practice medicine. Do it every time you need the services of a new physician. Just because they are in business doesn’t mean they have a right to be.

Many of the perpetrators are caught not by something they’ve done in their practice, but by how they reacted in a situation where the unexpected occurred and a crisis developed. Dean Faiello panicked instead of getting the appropriate treatment for Maria. He then took the situation to an extreme, burying her body and concealing her death.