Sleezy Abortionists Sentenced

Bugarin accomplices sentenced
Women who helped with illegal abortions get probation, community service
California Catholic Daily 9/24/2009

Two accomplices of Bertha Bugarin, who is serving a prison sentence for performing illegal abortions in San Diego and Los Angeles counties, have been sentenced to three years probation and lengthy terms of community service for their roles in assisting Bugarin’s illicit activities at Clinica Medica para la Mujer de Hoy in Chula Vista.

Luz Catalina-Gomez was charged with four counts of “treating the sick/afflicted without a certificate,” while Paloma Yonna Solorzano-Rodriguez was accused of two counts of the same crime. Both women were also charged with a single count of grand theft. The alleged crimes occurred on various dates between February and March of 2007.

Catalina-Gomez was sentenced to three years formal probation, 350 hours of volunteer work service to be completed by Sept. 20, 2010, and 365 days in custody stayed pending successful completion of probation, Paul Levikow, Communications Director for the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office, told California Catholic Daily. The judge also ordered Catalina-Gomez to have no contact with Bertha or Raquel Bugarin and prohibited her from working in the medical field.

Solorzano-Rodriguez was sentenced to three years formal probation, 200 hours of volunteer work service to be completed by Sept. 20, 2010, and 365 days in custody stayed pending successful completion of probation. Solorzano-Rodriguez was also ordered to have no contact with the Bugarin sisters and not to seek employment in the medical field, Levikow said.

“Both defendants pleaded guilty on the day that jury trial was scheduled to begin,” said Levikow. “Defendants both pleaded guilty to all charges on the Information that pertained to them.”

San Diego Superior Court Judge Ted Weathers handed down the sentences in a deal reached between the judge and the defendants, said Levikow. “The People (DA’s office) did not take part in this deal.”

The two women worked for Bertha Bugarin, who earlier pleaded guilty to nine felony counts of performing abortions without a license at the Chula Vista clinic, just a few miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. The clinic targeted Spanish-speaking women from the border area. On April 24, Judge Charles Gill sentenced Bugarin to six years, eight months in prison. Bugarin’s sentence in the San Diego case will run concurrently with a three-year, four-month sentence handed down against her in January on similar charges in Los Angeles County.

“This criminal preyed on women in the Hispanic community and has now been held accountable,” said San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis in December 2008, when Bugarin pleaded guilty to the charges. “By passing herself off as a doctor, she put these women’s lives in serious danger.”

Bugarin’s sister, Raquel Bugarin, pleaded no contest to three counts of felony practicing medicine without a license in a plea bargain with the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office. In exchange, the district attorney dismissed four other felony counts filed against her. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Sam Ohta sentenced Raquel Bugarin on Oct. 1, 2008 to three years formal probation, 500 hours of community service, and ordered her to pay $3,270 in restitution to six victims.

Bertha Bugarin advertised her Chula Vista clinic on Spanish-language television in San Diego and Tijuana. At least nine victims in the Chula Vista area came forward and identified Bugarin as the person who performed surgical and/or medical procedures on them, the San Diego district attorney said. One of Bugarin’s patients suffered severe complications and had to be hospitalized twice, and eventually delivered her baby prematurely, which lived for only three hours, said the district attorney. Another patient paid $500 for an abortion, but had to return to the office for a second procedure because the first abortion was unsuccessful, according to the district attorney.

Bugarin reportedly ran a cash-only business, and over a period of 18 years hired a long list of physicians to perform abortions who had a history of incompetence or negligence, many of whom had their licenses to practice medicine revoked, according to records on file at the California Medical Board. Apparently, when Bugarin ran out of licensed physicians to perform abortions, she decided to pose as a doctor and do them herself.

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One of Bugarin’s abortionists, Laurence Reich, was a twice-convicted sex offender who molested and raped his abortion patients. Reich surrendered his license in 2006, but continued to work as an abortionist for Bugarin until his arrest in February, 2008.

Even after her arrest in a Los Angeles Police raid on 4 of her remaining 6 clinics, Bugarin continued to operate in San Diego County until her arrest there.

Bugarin pled guilty to 9 felony counts in San Diego County and is scheduled for sentencing there on Friday, February 6, 2009.

Read Reich’s 1982 Disciplinary Documents (Warning: Sexually Graphic)

CNN Report – here