A Miami woman, commonly known as the “toxic tush” doctor, was sentenced to a decade behind bars Monday for administering botched buttocks injections that left one woman dead.

Oneal Ron Morris, 36, pled no contest last month to manslaughter and practicing medicine without a license. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison followed by five years probation.

‘Toxic tush doctor’ who ‘injected women’s bums with sealant and cement’ jailedhttps://t.co/8S3N0Z4Mmv pic.twitter.com/VhihBW5cr8

— Daily Mirror (@DailyMirror) March 28, 2017

Morris, who was known by her patients as “Duchess,” was accused of injecting toxic materials–cement, silicone mineral oil, bathroom caulking, Fix-a-Flat tire sealant, and superglue–into women’s backsides to cosmetically enhance their curves.

In 2012, Shatarka Nuby, died in prison from complications related to Morris’ procedures. Prior to her death, the 31-year-old mother of three had penned a letter to the state’s health department claiming that her butt had hardened and turned black, and that she felt sick. She had allegedly paid Morris $2,000 for as many as 10 injections between 2007 and 2010. Officials began an investigation and interviewed Nuby, but four months later she was pronounced dead.

According to the Washington Post, the medical examiner listed the official cause of death as respiratory failure from “massive systemic silicone migration” from injections to Nuby’s buttocks and hips.

“My daughter died the most inhuman death,” Nuby’s mother, Sherri Pitts, said at the hearing. “Eighteen months she suffered not knowing the full of what [was] put in her body.”

However, Morris’ defense lawyer, William Lanphear, disagreed with the sentence, claiming that her patients knew they were not dealing with a real doctor.

“All parties share the responsibilities and the blame for their own actions and the role they played,” he said. “There was an assumption of risk obligation from the victims.”

Morris was previously convicted in Miami-Dade County for practicing without a license and served one year in prison.

In 2013, Morris–and her butt–became a viral sensation after photos of her were released; the attention resulted in the media dubbing it the “toxic tush” case. She reportedly injected herself with the same toxic cocktail she used on her clients, disfiguring her own body.

During the sentencing, Morris denied that she knowingly injected household materials into women’s bodies, stating: “I’ve been found guilty by the media and outside sources based on lies.”

“I have never ever or would dare ever to inject or have injected any human with any type of unknown substance,” Morris said.

The judge ordered Morris, who was born male, to serve her time in a men’s prison because Florida law doesn’t have exemptions for transgender inmates. While the punishment may very well fit the crime, Morris’ lawyers argued that she could become a victim herself in an all-male prison.

According to a 2011-2012 survey conducted by the Bureau of Justice, 39.9 percent of transgender prison inmates and 26.8 percent of transgender jail inmates reported some type of sexual assault. That’s 10 times higher than for the general prison and jail populations, according to the New York Times.

“This isn’t ‘Orange Is the New Black.’ This isn’t going to be all fun and games for her,” said her attorney, Kirstie Cohen. “She’s at risk, and a very high risk, to be abused by not only inmates but guards.”

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez signed a memo on Thursday that orders county officials to comply with federal immigration detention requests. This order makes Miami-Dade the first jurisdiction to relinquish its status as an immigrant sanctuary, a title given to it by the Department of Justice in May of 2016, but one that the county itself has resisted.

Gimenez’s action comes a day after President Trump signed an executive order titled “Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States” on Wednesday, which denies federal funding to sanctuary cities by instructing the Department of Homeland Security to cut its funding to these cities. This, in effect, coerces counties into cooperating with federal authorities when it comes to detaining undocumented immigrants.

Gimenez’s action directs the county’s corrections director to comply with Trump’s executive order by holding undocumented immigrants who have been detained by police for committing crimes long enough for federal authorities to pick them up, a measure that officials in many cities have resisted so far.

In 2016, the cost that the county would have incurred had it held the almost 100 undocumented inmates long enough for feds to pick them up would have been about $52,000, according to The Miami Herald, which broke the story.

In an interview with The Miami Herald, Gimenez said that his decision was a financial one, stating that “I want to make sure we don’t put in jeopardy the millions of funds we get from the federal government for a $52,000 issue. It doesn’t mean that we’re going to be arresting more people. It doesn’t mean that we’re going to be enforcing any immigration laws.”

On “Fox and Friends” this morning, Gimenez told the show’s hosts that the decision was a “no-brainer,” saying that Trump’s executive order “put an exclamation point” on the issue, and the county is merely returning to its 2014 policy honoring detention requests “regardless of the fact the governments says they’ll pay for it.”

Gimenez’s statement stands in contrast to statements made by mayors of other sanctuary cities such as Bill de Blasio of New York City. He said on CNN that the city would threaten to sue if federal funding was stripped because the city refused to turn over undocumented immigrants who commit low-level crimes. The city’s current policy states that the city will cooperate with the federal government if an undocumented immigrant commits a serious crime.

Gimenez, who voted for Hillary Clinton in the election, and called for Trump to step down as the Republican party’s nominee back in October, was praised by Trump, as the president took to Twitter yesterday afternoon to celebrate the perceived policy victory:

Miami-Dade Mayor drops sanctuary policy. Right decision. Strong! https://t.co/MtPvaDC4jM

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2017

Austin Elias-De Jesus

Austin is an editorial intern at Law Street Media. He is a junior at The George Washington University majoring in Political Communication. You can usually find him reading somewhere. If you can’t find him reading, he’s probably taking a walk. Contact Austin at Staff@Lawstreetmedia.com.

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On Monday, ten more people were confirmed by Florida Governor Rick Scott to have been infected by a Zika carrying mosquito in the Miami area. That brings the total number of local Zika cases–that is, those where transmission took place on American soil as opposed to an infected traveler from Latin America–to 14. All the cases, the first of which was reported a few weeks ago, are believed to have emerged in a one square mile area just north of downtown Miami, in the Wynwood arts district. The latest cases were found among more than 200 people who were tested for Zika within the affected area of Miami.

Governor Scott said in a statement that he will issue a travel notice to pregnant women or women who are thinking about conceiving a child in the near future. Zika is especially dangerous to pregnant women, because a child born to a Zika-infected mother has a high chance of developing microcephaly. Scott also said he will be calling on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to assist in investigating the Wynwood cases, as well as in preventing further transmission.

Dr. Antonio Crespo, an infectious disease specialist with Orlando Health, said it’s no shock that Florida is the site of the first local Zika transmissions in the U.S. Aedes aegypti, the mosquito that carries Zika and thrives in tropical climates, is common in Florida, Crespo said. That, combined with the fact that travelers from parts of Latin America where Zika is rampant often land in Florida, is why local cases were inevitable. “When you put the two together it’s not a surprise that at some point there was going to be a local transmission,” he told Law Street in a phone interview.

Dr. Crespo is optimistic that the disease will be contained, however. “I’m optimistic with Zika–maybe cautiously optimistic–because of what we have seen in the past,” he said, referring to the state’s successful campaigns to thwart dengue fever and chikungunya, two mosquito-borne diseases also carried by Aedes aegypti. Those diseases saw sporadic outbreaks in Florida over the past decade, but were contained by a process called vector control–a similar process is now being employed to deal with Zika.

Vector control is a two-pronged strategy, both to prevent further transmission and the spread of existing cases. First, people in an affected area–in this case, Miami-Dade and Broward counties–must take pains to avoid getting bitten. The best way to do that, according to Dr. Crespo, is to follow the precautions prescribed by the CDC: apply repellent and erect mosquito nets inside and around their homes. The mosquito’s population is then contained by draining standing water–a favorable breeding ground–and spraying the affected area with larvicide. Eventually, Dr. Crespo said, the disease will be contained and choked at the source.

Crespo is confident that Zika will be contained, but considering the connectedness of the world today, he said, the threat should not be taken lightly. “We live in a world where people travel, so it’s very easy for one disease to be transferred from one country to another in a matter of hours,” he said. “We need to continue to be on high alert.”

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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