Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
San Francisco Examiner - March 24, 2006
Marisa Lagos
Stephen Brian Turner, 51, pleaded guilty to five felony counts he was charged with in connection with the crimes, and agreed to spend seven years and eight months in state prison. A judge will review what Assistant District Attorney June Cravett called a "stiff" deal on April 25 at a sentencing hearing, though Cravett said she has no reason to believe he will not accept the agreement.
In pleading guilty to the crimes, Turner admitted that he gave 1,417 immigrants fake medical exams, vaccine shots filled with saline solution and false HIV and syphilis test results for two years, from August 2003 until December 2005.
Turner also confessed to bilking his victims out of $247,000 for the approximately $200 treatments, which he conducted out of two Mission District clinics set up expressly for that purpose. Cravett said prosecutors agreed to drop more than 100 counts relating to 30 specific victims that investigators were able to contact, in lieu of pursuing the more serious felony charges.
The hundreds of additional victims were identified through receipt books found at one of the Mission District clinics when investigators raided it in December, Cravett said, but prosecutors were unable to contact those people.
After the hearing Thursday afternoon, Turner's lawyer said his client was "very anxious and very nervous" about his upcoming prison sentence.
Herman Franck said Turner had set up the San Francisco clinics because he needed money after he surrendered his medical license in 1998 in connection with sexual assault charges that have since been purged from his record.
Franck said Turner owed $1 million to settle a harassment lawsuit leveled against him in 1997 after he allegedly pursued a woman who was not interested in him.
Turner's wife and three children will have to give up their Hayward home following today's plea, Franck said.
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