LOS ANGELES -- A Granada Hills woman who managed medical clinics in Los Angeles, Panorama City, Baldwin Park and Huntington Park was sentenced Friday to three years and four months in state prison for practicing medicine without a license.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Sam Ohta imposed the sentence on Bertha Bugarin, 49, who pleaded no contest Dec. 1 to seven felony counts of practicing medicine without a license.
Authorities said Bugarin, who was charged in September 2007, performed medical procedures on patients between February 2007 and April 2007 when physicians were not in the office, and that she was aided in some instances by her sister, Raquel Bugarin, who worked at the clinics.
Raquel Bugarin, 51, pleaded no contest in September to three felony counts of practicing medicine without a license and was sentenced the following month to three years probation and 500 hours of community service.
The sisters were charged after an investigation by the Health Authority Law Enforcement Task Force, a multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional task force overseen by the county Department of Public Health.
