3d arrest in probe of illegal surgeries

FRAMINGHAM -- A woman who allegedly recruited patients to an illegal cosmetic surgery clinic run from her Framingham basement was arrested at a Motel 6 yesterday as she was preparing to flee the country, prosecutors said.

Ana Celia Pena Sielemenn, 40, rented the basement of her condominium on Bishop Drive to a Brazilian couple who performed the surgery; she gave anesthesia to patients, and she even skimmed money from clients for herself, Middlesex County prosecutors said in court.

Sielemenn, who is known as Celia, was arrested at 10 a.m. yesterday and charged in Framingham District Court with distributing illegal narcotics to people undergoing plastic surgery.

Prosecutors said she was preparing to leave the country, perhaps to head back to her native Brazil, and that she had what appeared to be a new passport. Sielemenn pleaded not guilty and was held on $25,000 bail, half the amount prosecutors sought.

Sielemenn is the third person arrested since police discovered the allegedly illegal cosmetic surgery clinic at 201 Bishop Drive on Sunday, after the death of a young Brazilian woman and the hospitalization of another. Both underwent liposuction in the makeshift basement clinic on a massage table covered with sheets.

Fabiola B. DePaula, 24, a native of Brazil, was pronounced dead shortly after members of the Sielemenn family brought her unconscious to a Framingham hospital late Sunday, authorities said. Results of an autopsy are pending, and prosecutors said they may file more serious charges against the couple accused of performing the operation.

Luiz Carlos Ribeiro and his wife, Ana Maria Miranda Ribeiro, both 49 and from Belo Horizantea, Brazil, pleaded not guilty to narcotics distribution charges on Monday. Prosecutors said they had traveled between Brazil and Massachusetts over the past several years to perform the surgeries. Luiz Carlos Ribeiro also was charged with practicing medicine without a license.

He is not licensed in Massachusetts, although he told police he is a licensed doctor in Brazil.

In Brazil, the Regional Medical Council of Minas Gerais, the equivalent of a US medical licensing board, confirmed that a physician with the same name and birth date as Luiz Carlos Ribeiro is licensed to practice medicine. But unlike most doctors in Brazil, he is not certified in any particular specialty, a council official said.

The council has no record of malpractice judgments against Ribeiro, the official added.

An official at the Society of Plastic Surgeons of Minas Gerais, which certifies specialists in the field, said Ribeiro is not a member and therefore has not completed the minimum requirements expected of a plastic surgeon in the state.

While many Brazilian physicians get licensed in other countries where they can make more money, a minority are known to take advantage of demand among Brazilian émigrés, as in the large community near Boston, and perform procedures illegally, said Renato Rocha Lage, president of the plastic surgeons society in Minas Gerais. ``It's a problem," he said. ``There's money to be made in other countries, and there are some physicians who are willing to take advantage of that without following the due processes."

A liposuction procedure typically costs $1,500 to $2,000 in Brazil. The Ribeiros allegedly charged up to $3,000 in Framingham.

According to prosecutors, Sielemenn gave a sedative to a woman, who they did not identify, on Sunday before a liposuction procedure performed by Ribeiro .

Prosecutors also said that another woman who received cosmetic surgery from Ribeiro on Sunday was told by Sielemenn four days earlier that the procedure would cost $4,000. The patient was later informed by another person at the house that the charge was $3,000.

When police searched the house, they found two bundles of $1,000 in cash in Sielemenn's shoes.

Defense lawyer Kevin R. Leeper said during the court hearing that Sielemenn was innocent of the charges, had no involvement in the illegal activities conducted in her basement, and was simply trying to escape the glare of the media by staying in the motel.

``This doctor contacted her and asked to use her basement on Saturday," he said. ``The first time he used her home was on Saturday, and she didn't receive any remuneration. She was sleeping upstairs when she was told of the emergency. She had no knowledge of a larger crime going on in her home over those two days."

Leeper said that his client suffers from depression and that pills found on her when she was arrested were prescribed by her doctor.

But a half-dozen residents living in the condominium complex said in interviews with the Globe that Sielemenn actively sought new clients for cosmetic surgery, going from building to building advertising liposuction and other procedures.

``I have seen her asking people if they wanted to have liposuction, and it has been going on for about three years," said Priscila Da Silva, 16, a resident at the complex.

Liz Kowalczyk of the Globe staff contributed to this report; Globe correspondent Paulo Prada reported from Brazil. Brian Ballou can be reached at bballou@globe.com.