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Amityville resident Julie DeVuono, owner of Wild Child Pediatric Healthcare, was indicted on Wednesday, April 12, for multiple felonies involving forged vaccination records and prescriptions, the Suffolk County DA announced.
It is alleged that DeVuono, acting in conjunction with employees Brooke Hogan and Marissa Urraro, abused her position as a healthcare worker by selling the bogus COVID-19 vaccination cards and falsely entering that information into the New York State Immunization Information System, or NYSIIS.
The investigation lasted from June 2021 to January 2022.
The DA claims DeVuono charged $220 in 2021 for false entries for adults.
In 2022, it said she charged $350 for those adult entries and $85 for each child.
DeVuono reportedly laundered the money through several accounts before reinvesting the proceeds into her business.
According to court documents, DeVuono received five shipments of COVID-19 vaccines between June and August 2021, totaling more than 2,700 doses.
Undercover investigators who saw DeVuono to receive faked COVID-19 cards allege that DeVuono’s nurse, Urraro, did not administer the vaccine and instead threw it in the garbage.
“This defendant thought she could use her position as a nurse practitioner to circumvent the law by allegedly uploading false information into New York state-wide databases,” said District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney.
“The defendant’s abuse of authority in pursuit of her own enrichment put people’s health and safety at risk, and it will not be tolerated in Suffolk County.”
In a separate indictment, DeVuono is charged with 20 counts of first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, for purportedly submitting fradulent oxycodone prescriptions to local pharmacies in Suffolk County.
The fake prescriptions, which the DA said were submitted between February 2019 and February 2021, were for individuals who were not DeVuono’s patients.
It also claims DeVuono knew that these prescriptions would be filed with the New York State Department of Health.
For the first indictment, DeVuono was charged with:
- Second-degree forgery (six counts)
- First-degree offering a false instrument for filing (five counts)
- Second-degree money laundering
- Fourth-degree money laundering
- Fifth-degree conspiracy
She is due back in court on Friday, May 19.
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