Just 2 ½ hours after we asked you to call the Florida Attorney General's office with your concerns about the stalled prosecution in the murder of Shanice Osbourne, a baby who was born alive then killed at a Hialeah abortion clinic last year, the Florida Department of Health issued a press release about the arrest of Siomara Senises on charges related to illegal abortions at another of Senises' abortion mills in Miramar. (Read Florida DOH press release.)
Saturday, the Miami Herald published the story below about the case, stating in the last paragraph that charges against Senises and her business partner, Belkis Gonzalez, in the Hialeah murder are being considered.
Your faithfulness has helped put the Hialeah murder case back on the front burner! But your help is still needed.
Concerns should continue to be voiced to:
Ed Griffiths
Public Informaion Officer for State Attorney, Miami-Dade County
Voice: 305-547-0100
We also believe that Baby Shanice's autopsy report lacks important details about her death that could help bring a conviction. Efforts to have her body re-examined by a forensic pathologist, which was not done in the first autopsy, have been blocked. Please contact the Miami-Date Medical Examiner and ask for a second autopsy to be conducted by a forensic pathologist.
ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTS:
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Clinics operated outside the law, police say
The co-owner of two clinics in Miramar and Hialeah where unlicensed physicians allegedly performed abortions will be arraigned on April 23.
BY JENNIFER MOONEY PIEDRA, April 7, 2007
For more than five years, Siomara Senises welcomed women into her abortion clinics in Miramar and Hialeah.
Sometimes, she even helped perform abortions, investigators say.
Yet no one at either shuttered facility was licensed to perform medical services, according to police affidavits.
Senises let a receptionist hand out prescription drugs, and allowed a doctor whose license had been revoked to continue performing abortions, police say.
After a two-year investigation, Senises was arrested late last month in Miramar. She is charged with aiding and abetting the unlicensed practice of medicine, a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison, police said.
Senises, 42, of Davie, is one of six people arrested in connection with the unlicensed abortion clinics, both named A GYN, according to police. She is scheduled for arraignment on April 23 in Broward circuit criminal court.
The state Department of Health, which investigated the case with Miramar police, says South Florida is a hot spot for unlicensed medical activity.
''It's important for citizens to know when you're going to a physician or center that it is an established medical center and that the healthcare professionals in that facility are properly licensed,'' said Lauren Buzzelli, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Health. "It's important to find out if your physician is really a physician.''
According to state records, Senises and Belkis Gonzalez, 41, of Miramar, opened the Miramar clinic at 6161 Miramar Pkwy. in 1999.
Two years later, the women opened another clinic, A GYN of Hialeah at 3671 W. 16th Ave.
Last year, a fetus was discovered inside a red biohazard bag at the Hialeah clinic, prompting the state to close it. The Miramar clinic had been shut down in 2005.
The health department first received a complaint about the Miramar clinic in 2004 from a patient who alleged that unlicensed doctors were performing abortions, according to police.
BOGUS DOCTOR
Investigators learned that Kieron Nisbet was posing as a physician and anesthesiologist, even though he had never obtained an active license to practice medicine in Florida.
Robelto Osborne also performed the surgeries, even though his medical license had been revoked, according to police documents.
The state Department of Health revoked Osborne's license in August 2004 because he failed to perform the necessary preoperative procedures. The state also said Osborne did not treat a uterine perforation - a complication of abortion.
Records also show that Osborne failed to return calls to his emergency line from patients who complained of extreme pain and bleeding.
Osborne said that Senises and Gonzalez knew his license was revoked, but continued to allow him to work. ''It was business as usual,'' he told investigators.
Arrest warrants were issued for Nisbet and Osborne. Osborne turned himself in and was sentenced to two years community control, followed by three years probation. Nisbet fled to Trinidad and is still a fugitive.
Also arrested were Joselin Collado, who told police she was hired as a phone receptionist, but later performed sonograms on patients and handed out drugs to them; and Adieren Rojas, who assisted one of the unlicensed doctors during the abortions, investigators say.
Collado, a licensed dental assistant, and Rojas both pleaded guilty to practicing medicine without a license and received probation.
In interviews with police, the arrested employees said Senises often visited the clinics to "pick up the money.''
The employees also told police that both owners advised them to ''not open the door to investigators and not to talk to them,'' police documents show.
Gonzalez was arrested in February by the Broward Sheriff's Office fugitive squad on charges of running the Miramar facility with unlicensed employees.
SECOND CASE?
The Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office is considering charges against her in connection with the fetus that was found in the Hialeah clinic, Mark Overton, Hialeah police said Friday.
Senises turned herself in to Miramar police on March 28. She was released the next day on bail of $1,000, according to BSO.
Miami Herald staff writer David Ovalle contributed to this report.
