By Donald Talonen
Allegan County woman Leticia Gallarzo, 49, was supposed to appear in a federal courtroom last week for sentencing but decided not to show. An order was signed on July 23 revoking her bond. Currently, she is a wanted felon.
In September 2023, she was indicted by a federal grand jury charging her with wire fraud, two counts of aggravated identity theft, two counts of making false statements in medical records affecting health care benefit programs, and production of a false identification document. All charges were related to her scheme to defraud her employers by posing as a registered nurse.
Eventually, Gallarzo plead guilty in November to two federal offenses: fabricating a false statement in a medical record that impacted a health care benefit program, and aggravated identity theft. The penalty for health care fraud is a maximum of five years in prison.
The charge of aggravated identity theft requires a mandatory two-year prison sentence.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald M. Stella states a prison term of slightly more than six years is warranted. Stella notes Gallarzo’s pattern of criminal behavior, including four convictions of impersonating a nurse in Texas. Court records show Gallazaro previously received 14 months in a Texas prison, where she served additional time for identity theft and shoplifting.
Stella said, “It is clear that to date she has had zero respect for the law.’’
Gallarzo used the Michigan licensing number and the name of a person licensed as a nurse to obtain employment as a nurse at an area hospice facility. Gallarzo did not possess a valid nursing license and represented that she earned a diploma in nursing at Davenport and George Washington University despite having no formal degree of any kind in nursing. She used the identity of an actual licensed registered nurse in Michigan when submitting her application to the prospective employer through Indeed.com.
After getting hired as a nurse, Gallarzo assessed elderly nursing home patients. She inaccurately signed electronic medical records, using the credentials of a licensed registered nurse. These were connected to Medicare because the nursing home depended on Gallarzo’s status as a licensed registered nurse to fulfill specific Medicare regulations for participating in and billing Medicare.
The facility learned that Gallarzo was a nurse impostor when her fingerprints matched the fingerprints on record due to her previous state and federal convictions for practicing nursing without a license in Texas in 2015 and 2016.
After being released from federal supervision in the Texas cases, Gallarzo got a nursing job in western Michigan using the identity of an actual nurse in 2022.
“The lack of qualifications did not deter her,” says Stella.
Stella wrote in a sentencing memorandum, “She is an extreme danger to the public,’’ concluding, “It is just a matter of time before her antics truly injure someone.’’
Gallarzo’s attorney, Britt M. Cobb says that while Gallarzo is not a registered nurse, “she has had formal training as a medical assistant and as a nurse, as well as years of on-the-job experience in the medical field.’’
Cobb writes, “She cares about patients and did not put them in any danger,” arguing that “Any risk, under the circumstances, is speculative rather than actual.’’
Gallarzo left Michigan in January, violating the conditions of her bond. She used a fake Illinois driver’s license to obtain a job as a physician assistant in Park Ridge. Court records show she had been administering Botox and weight loss shots to patients.
Records show Gallazaro’s co-workers were suspicious because she “did not use proper medical terms. . . and always seemed very nervous.”
The healthcare fraud charge is punishable by up to five years in prison, while the aggravated identity theft charge carries a mandatory two years in prison. The prison sentence must be served consecutively after any prison term given for the health care fraud charge.
