Fraud Charges Against Woman Acquitted Of Killing Model In Santa Monica Dismissed Then Refiled

LOS ANGELES, CA -- Los Angeles County prosecutors refiled charges Thursday, shortly after asking a judge to dismiss charges against a dozen people charged in what was once called one of the largest insurance fraud scams in California's history.

One of the people is a Thousand Oaks woman acquitted almost four years ago of the murder of an aspiring model in Santa Monica.

"I think it's outrageous. I think the DA's office should be ashamed of itself," Kelly Soo Park's attorney, Mark Kassabian, said outside court.

Kassabian said the prosecution had "basically asked for a do-over" in the fraud case, in which the 12 were indicted in 2015 and had been awaiting trial.

He noted that the defense had made the unusual step of objecting to the prosecution's request for the charges to be dismissed because it required the case to start over again.

Park, now 51, was acquitted in June 2013 of first-degree murder and second-degree murder for the March 15, 2008, strangulation of Juliana Redding.

Redding was killed five days after her father pulled out of a potential business deal with Dr. Munih Uwaydah, an orthopedic surgeon for whom Park worked as an office manager and personal assistant. Prosecutors in Park's murder case contended that Uwaydah described Park as a "female James Bond."

Park is scheduled to be arraigned April 26 in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom, along with 11 other defendants.

The 2015 indictment remains in effect for Uwaydah and one of his employees, Wendee Luke, who are fugitives, according to the District Attorney's Office.

The prosecution asked Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy to dismiss the indictments "in the interest of justice" before refiling the cases, according to Greg Risling of the District Attorney's Office.

The newly refiled case against Park includes charges of aggravated mayhem, mayhem, insurance fraud and conspiracy to commit a crime. Park was freed on bond last year after Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy dismissed 18 counts of aggravated mayhem against Park, who had been held on $10 million bail.

"I just don't find evidence of specific intent to permanently disfigure," the judge said then in dismissing an aggravated mayhem charge against one of the defendants charged along with Park.

Also charged are:

• Paul Turley, 44, of Granada Hills, a chiropractor and Uwaydah's business partner;
• Maria Turley, 40, of Granada Hills, Uwaydah's director of surgery;.
• Peter Nelson, 45, of Redondo Beach, Uwaydah's physician assistant;
• Marisa Schermbeck Nelson, 40, of Redondo Beach, Uwaydah's personal assistant;
• Tatiana Torres Arnold, 46, of Encino, who prosecutors say was Uwaydah's personal attorney and held various positions in his companies;
• Ronnie Case, 40, of Camarillo, a billing manager;
• Jeffrey Stevens, 65, of Playa del Rey, who was a business associate of Uwaydah's;
• Leticia Alvarez Lemus, 40, of Corona, an office manager;
• Tony Folgar, 59, of Sylmar, a paralegal for a law firm;
• Yolanda Groscost, 50, of Fountain Valley, the owner of a marketing firm;
• Terry Luke, 72, of Brea, who held various positions for Uwaydah's companies. He is Wendy Luke's father.

Prosecutors allege that attorneys and marketers were paid to refer patients, and that nearly two-dozen patients were allegedly duped into having surgical procedures in the belief that they would be done by Uwaydah when the procedures were allegedly performed by Peter Nelson, who never attended medical school.

Prosecutors also contend that Uwaydah was not present in the operating room for all surgeries and that 21 patients have lasting physical scars, and that insurance companies were billed tens of millions of dollars and that medical reports were falsified.

-- City News Service, photo courtesy of the Santa Monica Police Department