Crime & Safety
Phony Doc Ran Clinic That Botched Woman's Butt Injection
A fake doctor has pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a woman's death after a black-market butt injection.

GRAMERCY, NY — A fake doctor who oversaw multiple illegal butt injections admitted to overseeing the phony practice where a Harlem mom was killed last year thanks to a toxic procedure.
Keith Richardson pleaded guilty to charges of second-degree manslaughter and unauthorized practice of a profession on Thursday, according to the Manhattan district attorney's office.
Richardson was arrested in December and, with an accomplice, accused of causing the death of Latesha Bynum, a 31-year-old mom of two, in July 2017. Bynum, who lived in Harlem, visited Richardson's fake office in a Gramercy-area apartment last year to get the black-market butt augmentation done. After the procedure, Bynum called 911 complaining of dizziness and chest pains, police said. She died 12 days later. The city's medical examiner's office ruled her death a homicide.
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Authorities later arrested Richardson and his colleague Allison Spence, both of whom they said "recklessly caused the death of Latesha Bynum" through the "wounds and injures" they inflicted on Bynym during the procedure, according to the indictment against the pair.
In court on Thursday, Richardson admitted to running the black market clinic for years, but said he wasn't in the apartment when Bynum received the botched injection, according to the New York Post, which first reported on his guilty plea.
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The indictment against Richardson and Spence indicated that the two had worked together for years conducting illegal butt injections and related operations.
The case against Spence is still pending.
Richardson is next scheduled to appear in court May 24. He was promised a sentence of between four and 12 years. Prosecutors had initially recommended a sentence of between five and 15 years.
Members of Bynum's family were in the courtroom on Thursday, according to the Post, including her two daughters and her mother Bertie Bynum
"My daughter won’t be back in 4 to 12 years," Bertie Bynum said after the guilty plea, according to the Post. "This is crazy! [He] killed my daughter!"
Image credit: Robert Cianflone / Staff / Getty Images
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