UPDATE: Emmy Award-winning investigative reporter Mike Deeson explains why Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis or Attorney General Ashley Moody should appoint an independent authority to take a closer look at the many questions surrounding the highly publicized “Operation Tooth Fairy” that, as yet, has not resulted in any prosecutions — but which has disrupted and devastated the lives of innocent Floridians.
See the original video by investigator Mike Deeson, below.
Ruined lives, wrecked careers, and expensive legal battles are just part of the fallout from Florida CFO Jimmy Patronis’ investigation of a South Florida dental practice. With at least three prosecutors refusing to bring charges, the big question is what motivated the highly publicized arrests of five office employees. Watch this story by Emmy award-winning journalist Mike Deeson, who spoke with one of those employees and his attorney. They say big money and power politics are behind it all.
RELATED: Honest Review Of State Government’s Suspect ‘Operation Tooth Fairy Heist’
By Ed Dean
Over the last few months, Florida Daily has covered the investigation of Jacksonville dentist Dr. Howard Fetner who is connected to the “Tooth Fairy Heist” arrests in Miami late last year.
Sources familiar with this case sat down with Florida Daily to give us further insight and their views on what’s taking place.
As we all know, truth is often stranger than fiction. When it comes to sordid Florida legal-political sagas, this real one has everything: Curiously timed political donations, a highly questionable state law enforcement “Operation” with a hokey name, a $24-million dental practice deal gone bad, vicious personal attacks, and glaring conflicts of interest.
Friends of Jacksonville Dentist Dr. Howard Fetner describe him as a good person with decades of service to his patients and community, who is despicably being dragged through apparently manufactured mud by a powerful array of elites, lawyers, special interests, and even a member of the establishment’s highest political class.
This week, it is coming to a head with what some increasingly view as a kangaroo court proceeding posing as the Florida Dentistry Board’s Probable Cause Panel.
Try this on for a glaring conflict of interest. The board is hearing a complaint against the highly respected Dr. Howard Fetner, a Jacksonville dentist with a spotless record over his 38-year career. If you check out his reviews at Patientconnect365.com, he’s been reviewed 453 times – every single one gave the Doctor a 5-star rating.
At the same time, Dr. Fetner is being sued by another dentist –- Dr. Jose Mellado, in a multi-million-dollar action where Mellado is trying to regain control of a practice for which he and his wife were handsomely paid more than $24 million.
Here’s the conflict: Mellado is the plaintiff against Fetner and the chair of the Florida Board of Dentistry (BOD), which will hear the complaint. Does that smell fair? The clear intent by Mellado is to leverage really suspect board charges against Fetner to then use in his high-dollar lawsuit. Even what increasingly appear to be unfounded allegations are terribly damaging to Dr. Fetner’s hard-earned reputation.
While Mellado finally recused himself from the upcoming BOD panel hearing, even that was a hollow gesture. Mellado’s attorney, Edwin Bayo, has remained in contact with the Board of Dentistry, even after his client’s recusal. As recently as March of this year, Bayo was serving as the Board’s de facto investigator and bringing allegations against Dr. Fetner, according to court records. How bad are the optics on that?
In other words, Mellado seems to have orchestrated the hearing and arguably tainted the entire process. Current members of the panel must surely see that they should either recuse themselves or simply dismiss this brazen attempt to use the board for the chair’s personal vendetta.
More on the Board of Dentistry meeting shortly, but let’s first look at how we got here as well as other nefarious tactics by Mellado and his compromised minions to circumvent the legal process.
A deal gone bad.
Mellado and his wife, Dr. Ania Cabrerizo, were paid $24 million in 2020 for the non-clinical portion of their pediatric dentistry practice. However, soon after the deal closed, the two engaged in behaviors and tactics that the new owners perceived as a toxic campaign to sabotage the practice and its expansion plans. According to court documents, they reportedly swore and cursed at employees and even became disruptive during board meetings.
Ultimately, the board fired Mellado as CEO of the dental management company and the ownership of the clinical practice was transferred to Dr. Fetner. As the owner of the practice, Fetner then terminated Mellado’s wife and co-agitator, Dr. Cabrerizo, for her chronic toxic and unprofessional behavior. The bitter couple immediately launched a vindictive smear campaign against Dr. Fetner and filed a civil suit to regain control of the practice, for which they were compensated so lavishly.
No, the Tooth Fairy isn’t real.
As the legal battle lines were being drawn, Mellado and his longtime politically connected, wealthy friend and mentor, Barbara Feingold, decided to contribute to the Political Action Committee (PAC) – Treasure Florida — of the statewide elected Chief Financial Officer, Jimmy Patronis. In September of 2022, Mellado donated $2,000; Feingold $50,000. All at once. It appears Feingold’s contribution was the single largest contribution by an individual to Patronis’ PAC in 2022. It also appears that Dr. Mellado’s contribution was his first ever to Patronis, and Feingold’s was her largest contribution ever.
Sources tell Florida Daily they found it curious that three months later, Patronis’ in-house law enforcement powers were unleashed in a targeted, cynical investigation into Mellado’s enemies. The effort was entitled “Operation Tooth Fairy Heist” to maximize appeal to media and was personally monitored by Patronis, according to a report from the Florida Bulldog.
In April 2023, five employees of the dental management company were suddenly and shockingly arrested based on CFO office affidavits that were riddled with inaccuracies. Patronis’ office immediately issued a press release on the arrests to seemingly fuel social media to destroy the five employees’ reputations and inflict irreparable mental harm. Just days after, Mellado’s lawyers used the arrests to make updated filings in their vengeful civil case.
“This move is nothing more than a scheme, and Patronis’ law enforcement attack ultimately seemed to have no merit – no case,” one of the sources told Florida Daily.
The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office refused to press or prosecute charges and found that key elements of what was alleged weren’t even illegal. The charges were dropped. But the innocent people who were arrested still bear the bruises and scars of that outrageous overreach. There is “no basis for action,” wrote Assistant State Attorney Michael Spivack.
Patronis’ office gave it to the Office of the Statewide Prosecutor (OSP), responsibly housed in the Office of the CFO’s peer member of the statewide elected Florida Cabinet, Attorney General Ashley Moody.
The AG’s Office of Statewide Prosecution seemed to question the motivation of the case in its memo declining to prosecute, saying that there were “both legal and factual issues that would prevent OSP from moving forward in good faith.”
Then, the CFO’s office sent the case to the Orange County State Attorney’s office, and they turned it down. Sources told Florida Daily that the Florida CFO’s office is still trying to find someone to validate the case. The file is awaiting a decision by State Attorney Brian Kramer in Gainesville’s 8th Circuit.
Those criticizing Patronis say the actions of his office may be without precedent because investigations of alleged Medicaid fraud do not fall under the authority of Patronis’ office, but instead, these types of charges are brought up by the feds, the Florida Attorney General, or state’s attorneys.
“Had one of these more experienced teams taken the lead, it might have saved innocent people the nightmare of being arrested and humiliated with their careers and lives in shambles,” a source told Florida Daily.
The downside to this investigation is that each time this case is sent to a different venue, it triggers a new investigation.
“This has politics wrapped around it and so long as the investigations continue, the injured and maligned dental practice can’t be paid for its services or serve their thousands of pediatric patients that rely on the practice for their dental care. Innocent people continue to live under a created cloud,” source said to Florida Daily.
Which brings us back to the Board of Dentistry.
There are three members of the Board’s Probable Cause Committee. Their names are Christine Bojaxhi, D.M.D., Thad Morgan, D.M.D., and Naved Fatmi, D.D.S.. and according to the Florida Board of Dentistry website, the rest of the Board of Dentistry includes Nicholas White, D.M.D., Angela Johnson, R.D.H., Bradley Cherry, D.D.S., M.D., Karyn Hill, C.R.D.H., B.S., Fabio Andrade, Claudio Miro, D.D.S., Thomas McCrawley, D.D.S. and Ben Assad Mirza, Esquire.
Friends of Dr. Fetner say the board needs to take immediate steps to end the weaponization of their own esteemed organization and ensure it doesn’t do the reckless bidding of a board chair who threatens the integrity of the board, state government, and fairness. They also believe the board should recuse themselves or dismiss the complaint they call corrupted.
“The board should not allow this madness to continue against a man with a distinguished career since it all seems to be based on apparent biases, ethical breaches, political favors, and suspect motives of those behind this charade This legal, political power play has failed multiple times – thankfully, because of the facts and the truth. Let those facts and truths reign now – and guide those elected and appointed officials to protect the public interest, not a funded special interest with a personal agenda,” these individuals tell Florida Daily.
Advocates of Dr. Fetner say it’s time for Mellado and his compromised allies to be accountable for the Tooth Fairy caper they created – because it isn’t real and they need to leave the doctor alone. “Its time to end the charade otherwise, the aftermath of this sorry saga is actual ‘truth’ decay that drills a deep cavity into public trust in government, its elected and appointed officials, and its related processes,” they tell Florida Daily.
