Orange County DA Blasts Decision To Temporarily Release Plastic Surgeon From Jail After COVID-19 Diagnosis
BEVERLY HILLS (CBSLA) -- Randy Rosen, an Orange County surgeon and jail inmate accused in a $29 million insurance fraud scheme who is facing decades behind bars, was temporarily set free ahead of the weekend after testing positive for coronavirus to the criticism of local officials.
District Attorney Todd Spitzer called the release of 57-year-old Rosen -- who is being monitored by an electronic bracelet -- unfair.
"Why is Dr. Rosen different than any other individual who is sitting in the Orange County Jail? But he has his means because he has ripped off insurance companies through the crimes we've charged... To me, this is like the theater of the absurd," Spitzer said. "It is incredibly upsetting to me that you have a system of the haves and the have nots."
Rosen's attorney argued before a judge that Rosen "is at substantial risk of poor outcome (of the coronavirus) because of his multiple co-morbidities for his current COVID-19 infection which requires medical follow-up."
The Orange County District Attorney's Office reported Friday that Rosen and his girlfriend, 41-year-old Liza Visamanos, are facing dozens of charges that they hired body brokers to find patients to receive "medically unnecessary" implant surgeries and cortisone shots.
Visamanos owned a drug laboratory called Lotus Laboratories, prosecutors said. Rosen would force his patients to get unneeded drug tests at her lab. Lotus Laboratories is accused of $3 million in fraudulent billing from those tests, the DA's office said.
Rosen and Visamanos were first arrested back on June 30 on a combined 144 counts including money laundering, submitting fraudulent insurance claims and withholding material facts on insurance claims.
Rosen faces a maximum sentence of 84 years in state prison if convicted as charged, while Visamanos faces 36 years.
After Rosen's positive COVID-19 test, he has been released, and now Spitzer is calling him a flight risk and questioned whether he would leave the country.
"If I knew I had an out for 30 days and money available and the means to get the heck of out this country, quite frankly I think I'd probably take the opportunity," Spitzer said. "Whether we see him back again is the big question."