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View Winners → Crime May 17, 2022
| Photo courtesy of Jernej Furman/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY2.0)
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An osteopathic doctor with a practice in Montrose was charged Tuesday with allegedly issuing fake COVID-19 vaccination cards and injecting some of his patients with blood plasma he received from donors.
Donald Plance, 68, who lives in the Sunland-Tujunga area, is set to be arraigned at a later date on 10 felony counts of making a forged government seal and 10 misdemeanor counts of making a false medical record, along with one misdemeanor count each of making a drug without a license and possession of a contaminated medical device, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Plance is accused of making his own vaccination cards and giving them to his patients between last August and last November, according to the District Attorney’s Office, which said the cards appeared to be genuine and bore the Centers for Disease Control and Health and Human Services seals.
The doctor also allegedly injected his patients with blood plasma from donors who purportedly previously had COVID-19, claiming that the procedure would protect his patients from contracting the virus, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
“It is disturbing that people, especially medical professionals, continue to use the pandemic as an opportunity to deceive the public,” District Attorney George Gascón said in the statement. “Fake COVID vaccination cards are illegal and endanger our collective health and well-being. We will continue to work with our local, state and federal law enforcement partners to protect consumers and stop medical fraud.”
