Murder Warrant Issued in Child’s Clinic Death

Authorities Friday issued a murder warrant for the arrest of a man accused of posing as a physician and botching treatment for a sick 13-month-old boy and accused his wife of tampering with medical records to cover up her husband’s role in the child’s death, Santa Ana police said.

The death of Christopher Martinez, which sparked outrage across Orange County, also has spurred an unprecedented crackdown on the dozens of independently run clinics in Santa Ana that are popular among impoverished immigrants.

At a press conference Friday, Santa Ana Police Chief Paul M. Walters announced that, beginning next week, police and state medical investigators will seek to verify the license of every physician working at a clinic within city limits.

Police say a murder charge against Gamaliel Moreno is warranted because he was practicing without a license when he delivered what authorities described as questionable medical care to the child. The boy was suffering flu-like symptoms, including vomiting and diarrhea, when his parents brought him to Consultorio Medico de Santa Ana clinic at 1028 W. First St. Moreno gave the baby five injections of an unknown substance over a three-day period and instructed the child’s parents not to feed him or give him water so the diarrhea could run its course, police said. The boy died April 23.

Only Friday did police announce that Eulalia Moreno, 33, was arrested April 24 at her Orange home and charged with being an accessory to murder, practicing medicine without a license and falsifying evidence, Walters said. She is being held at Orange County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail. Her husband has since fled the area and remains a fugitive, police said.

The boy’s father, Salvador Martinez, said he wants to see the Morenos face the charges lodged against them.

“If he has a conscience, he would turn himself in. You can’t just kill a baby and go on living like nothing happened,” Martinez said.

Eulalia Moreno allegedly tampered with entries in Christopher’s file relating to the treatment he was given, but police chief Walters declined to discuss that in detail. Walters said that police did not disclose her arrest sooner for fear the investigation would be jeopardized.

Walters cited the preliminary cause of the child’s death as “major organ failure due to dehydration,” but the Orange County Medical Examiner’s office said they are still awaiting results of toxicology tests before an exact cause of death can be determined.

Attorney Al Amezcua, who has been hired by Christopher’s parents, said Walters’ comments about the baby’s cause of death “are not totally” accurate.

“It’s incorrect. But we’re not ready to disclose the cause of death because the coroner’s investigation is incomplete,” Amezcua said. “There is no finding yet on the death of the child.”

Walters said police and state medical board investigators will form a task force to investigate every medical clinic in Santa Ana to assure that physicians are licensed.

“We will go to each one and make sure [the doctors] have the appropriate education and license,” said Walters, who said the task force will begin visiting clinics next week.

However, Medical Board of California spokeswoman Candice Cohen said the agency was still studying the proposal made by the Police Department to investigate every clinic. “It’s just an idea. It hasn’t been flushed out,” she said.

The fugitive, who is a Mexican citizen, has also been charged with practicing medicine without a license and falsifying evidence. Santa Ana Det. Tom Marty said that Mexican authorities have been alerted to the charges against Moreno, but added that “We don’t know his whereabouts.”

If Moreno is arrested in Mexico, it is unlikely that he would be extradited to stand trial here because Mexican authorities are reluctant to extradite their country’s citizens, especially in murder cases, officials said.

Medical Board of California officials also confirmed Friday that the suspect was the focus of an investigation last year when he practiced medicine at another Santa Ana clinic. But board spokeswoman Cohen on Friday said she could not confirm what action, if any, was taken at that time.

Police said they do not believe Eulalia Moreno treated clinic patients, but she was charged with practicing medicine without a license because of her duties running the business, which had four employees, including the Morenos, officials said.

Another clinic worker, Rafael Garay, also posed as a doctor and worked alongside Moreno, police said, treating “hundreds of patients.” Police refused to say Friday if Garay faced criminal charges, or whether he is cooperating with investigators.

For now, the probe appears to be focusing on Moreno.

Since the investigation began last week, “several people have come forward and stated that [Moreno] misdiagnosed their conditions and they had to seek medical treatment at hospitals throughout the county,” Det. Tom Marty said.

When investigators searched the clinic after Christopher’s death last week, they found a small storeroom “jammed with dozens of medicines, some of which only a medical doctor can prescribe,” Santa Ana Sgt. Gary Bruce said.

The medication was “purchased in bulk in Mexico,” Bruce said. The clinic has since been shut.

Christopher’s parents, Salvador Martinez and Alicia Ortiz, said Friday that police had not informed them of Eulalia Moreno’s arrest.

A weeping Ortiz said she feels guilt over her son’s death. The baby was usually taken to a legitimate clinic on 17th Street, near their apartment. On the day that Christopher fell ill, she called the clinic and was told by a nurse that although the waiting room was full of patients, the doctors would see the boy immediately if Ortiz thought it was an emergency.

“I didn’t think it was an emergency, so I drove to Consultorio Medico. Our friend had told us about Moreno. I had no reason to believe he wasn’t a doctor. All I wanted was for my son to get better. It was the only time we ever went there,” Ortiz said.