By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, March 13, 1992
The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | D02
The state Consumer Affairs Division and police say Miguel Gonzalez was the dentist of choice for a Hispanic clientele in the township. The problem, officials said, was that Gonzalez did not have a license.
Police this week arrested Gonzalez at his apartment at 304 72nd St., where he practiced, Lt. Timothy Kelly said Thursday.
Nancy Erickson, director of communications for the division, said the arrest followed an anonymous complaint. The agency’s enforcement bureau, which acts on complaints to the New Jersey Dentistry Board as well as all other professional boards in the state, inspected Gonzalez’s apartment on Tuesday.
The investigator found syringes and anesthetic drugs and concluded that Gonzalez, 40, was practicing without a license, Erickson said.
Sgt. Joseph Bode executed a search warrant at the apartment about 4 p.m. Wednesday and seized bottles of Novocain, syringes, patients records, and dental equipment. Gonzalez, a dental technician at a Union City laboratory, was arrested.
However, Gonzalez could not be charged with practicing medicine without a license because there is no state law that penalizes failure to have a dentistry license, Kelly said.
Gonzalez is scheduled to appear in Municipal Court next week on charges of illegal possession of the Novocain, unlawful possession of hypodermic needles, and wrongful impersonation. Erickson said the Consumer Affairs Division could fine Gonzalez for practicing without a license and issue a cease and desist order.
Kelly said Gonzalez may have been a dentist in Cuba, but did not have a license to practice in this country. Working mostly at night, Gonzalez treated about four patients a day, he said.
ID: 17371290 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)
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