news-record.com

GREENSBORO - The operator of a spa where three women received cosmetic injections and later developed kidney failure now faces felony charges.

Lauretta Michelle Cheek, 39 , of 5707 Landerwood Drive in Greensboro is charged with 20 counts of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud or forgery. She is free on $1,500 bond and is scheduled to appear in court Sept. 3.

Cheek's spa, Altmed of the Triad , came under scrutiny by the Guilford County Department of Public Health in late December after three women were reported to have developed kidney failure after receiving buttocks-enhancement injections there.

The injections, each between 600 and 1,000 milliliters , were supposed to have been given by or under the direction of a physician. The Guilford County Department of Public Health has said they were not.

After learning about the women, the health department ordered the spa to stop all injections of the material the women received and then, in early January, ordered it to stop injections entirely.

The women's identities were never disclosed. The health department last reported in March that all three were recovering. No additional information on their conditions was available Friday.

After an investigation by the Guilford County Sheriff's Office and consultation with the district attorney's office, Cheek was charged in March with a single count of practicing medicine without a license, a misdemeanor.

Her next court date on that charge is Sept. 18.

Altmed's phone number was not in service Friday. A message left on a machine at Cheek's home was not returned.

The new charges, on which Cheek was arrested Aug. 4, allege that between July and December 2007, Cheek used the name of a UNC-Chapel Hill physician to obtain drugs from area pharmacies. According to arrest warrants, she sometimes gave the names of patients for whom the drugs supposedly were intended.

The drugs she is charged with obtaining were Novarel and Phentermine . Novarel is used primarily to cause ovulation and treat infertility in women and to increase sperm count in men. Phentermine is used primarily as an appetite suppressant.

The investigation appeared at an end after the misdemeanor charge was filed in March.

It is not clear what new developments led to a renewed investigation and the felony charges.

Attempts to reach Detective R.C. Cotten of the sheriff's office, who filed the charges, were unsuccessful Friday.

County health director Merle Green declined to comment on the new charges.

Contact Lex Alexander at 373-7088 or lex.alexander@news-record.com