Women in 2 States Indicted in Separate Clandestine Silicone Injection Scams
Update:
In May 2017, Deanna Roberts pleaded guilty to illegally injecting persons with liquid silicone and for introducing liquid silicone that was obtained by fraud into interstate commerce. Roberts, who continued to administer industrial grade silicone injections even after she knew that one her patients had died and others had been hospitalized, was sentenced to eleven years and three months in federal prison.
Kendra Westmoreland pleaded guilty to receiving and delivering an adulterated or misbranded device in February 2017. Her sentencing is still pending.
In May, both Maryland and Florida prosecuted 2 women for injecting unsuspecting patients with industrial-grade silicone. The Florida case resulted in a death.
Maryland
Kendra Westmoreland allegedly had been injecting customers with industrial grade dimethicone for 15 years when she was indicted on May 12, 2016 on charges she received and administered an adulterated or misbranded device, in connection with her alleged receipt and use of Polydimethylsiloxane (dimethicone) which she misrepresented as medical grade silicone, according to a press release from the Department of Justice (DOJ).
According to the DOJ, Westmoreland allegedly purchased her industrial grade dimethicone online from a supplier in China.
The DOJ reports that “Westmoreland intentionally defrauded and misled individuals by representing polydimethylsiloxane as ‘medical grade’ silicone and approved for injecting directly into the human body. As a result of her representations, victim customers came to her residence in Windsor Mill to have polydimethylsiloxane injected directly into their buttocks and other places on their bodies, for larger and fuller buttocks or to shape other areas of their bodies. Westmoreland also traveled to Miami, Florida, and other locations, for the same purpose. According to the indictment, Westmoreland stored the polydimethylsiloxone in a plastic container that was not properly labeled for medical use, nor was Westmoreland a licensed medical practitioner or under the supervision of a licensed medical practitioner.”
If found guilty on all charges, Westmoreland will face 3 years in prison.
Florida
One week later, Florida resident Deanna M. Roberts was arrested on charges she allegedly killed a patient with an injection of industrial grade silicone, the DOJ reported in a May 18th press release.
According to the DOJ, Roberts began buying industrial silicone from a supplier in Arizona. They claim that before she was allowed to purchase it, she was required to certify that she would at no time use the compound on humans. Roberts allegedly claimed she was buying the silicone for a customer who needed it to lubricate medical equipment.
Between April 2004 and December 2015, she allegedly purchased about 178 gallons of the industrial silicone, the DOJ reports.
Roberts’ indictment alleges that on November 16, 2015, she injected liquid silicone into the buttocks of a patient identified in the indictment only as L.H.
According to the New York Daily News, the person who was killed by these injections was a popular Atlanta performer named Lateasha “Shuntel” Hall. According to the Daily News, initial reports of her death did not at first connect it with the injections she received, but subsequent investigations of Facebook posts where she talked about the procedure and cited Roberts by name led authorities to press charges against Roberts. The Daily News also reports that Roberts is being held without bond as she is considered a danger to the community.
U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein told WbalTV11 in relation to the Westmoreland case, "The FDA has been very aggressive in pursuing these cases, because it has become a problem all over the country where people are buying this silicone that's not approved for medical purposes. They're injecting it into patients and people are being injured and even dying as a result of this unapproved silicone being injected into their bodies."