Jan 30, 2008 1:33 pm US/Eastern
Judge Rejects Plea In Framingham Liposuction Death
CAMBRIDGE (WBZ) ―
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Luiz Carlos Ribeiro and his wife Miranda led into Framingham Distriict Court Monday July 31, 2006 12:00 pm. He is charged with performing liposuction on a woman, without a license, in his home.
CBS4
A Brazilian doctor charged with manslaughter in the liposuction death of an immigrant at a Framingham home, tried to enter a guilty plea Wednesday, but the judge refused to accept the deal.
The judge made that decision after the doctor contradicted several claims by prosecutors about whether the patient could have been saved.
Luiz Carlos Ribeiro, 51, appeared in Middlesex Superior Court to plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter in a case that exposed an underground cosmetic surgery network used by Brazilian immigrants.
But after prosecutors then gave their standard recitation of the facts that they could have proved at trial, Ribeiro told the judge he didn't agree with many of them.
He insisted he did in fact have a sterile surgical area and the proper resuscitation equipment when he performed the fat-removal surgery on Fabiola DePaula the basement of a Framingham condominium in July 2006.
DePaula, a 24-year-old Brazilian immigrant, died of complications from the surgery, including pulmonary fat emboli, or fat particles in the lungs, a complication of liposuction.
Ribeiro insisted there was nothing that could have saved the woman.
"If I had 100 years, I would swear that I didn't kill anybody because I would never kill," Ribeiro told the judge. "Fabiola's death was sudden. I had no chance to do anything."
Prosecutors say Ribeiro performed liposuction, nose jobs and Botox injections for several years in the Framingham area, mostly for the town's large Brazilian immigrant population, which places a high value on beauty.
The procedures were performed on a massage table, under unsanitary conditions and without any emergency oxygen in place, authorities said.
Prosecutors said if the procedure had been monitored in a hospital, DePaula's death could have been prevented.
"We allege that Luiz Carlos Ribeiro recklessly put the life of Fabiola DePaula in great danger by performing this illegal procedure without the proper equipment, medications, or safeguards - ultimately resulting in her tragic death," said Middlesex District Attorney, Gerry Leone. "The fact that this defendant could not accept the facts as alleged today means that we will now proceed to trial. We are confident that we have a strong case against the defendant and intend to prove that case in court."
Judge Wendie Gershengorn refused to accept his guilty plea and set the case for trial beginning April 3.
Ribeiro's former wife, Ana Maria Miranda Ribeiro, was sentenced to
one year in prison last September after pleading guilty to manslaughter
charges.
This after she admitted that she acted as a nurse for her former husband, helping him
perform the illegal liposuction.
She faces deportation after her prison sentence.
Luiz Ribeiro was a licensed doctor in his native Brazil, but neither he nor his ex-wife were licensed to practice medicine in the United States, authorities said.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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