#7 - Lawrence Rudolph
Pennsylvania dentist Lawrence Rudolph went on a hunting trip to Zambia with his wife, Bianca, in
October of 2016. They were both described as avid hunters and it was mentioned in later reports that
they’d gone on the African safari so that Bianca would have the opportunity to kill a leopard. On
the morning of October the 11th, a group of the safari’s gamekeepers and scouts heard the sound
of a gunshot coming from the Rudolphs’ cabin. Upon investigating the noise, they reportedly came upon
Bianca’s lifeless body lying on the ground after she’d suffered a gunshot wound to the chest.
Her husband told the gamekeepers that he was in the bathroom when he’d heard Bianca’s Browning
12 gauge shotgun discharge. Rudolph repeated the narrative while being questioned by local police.
Zambian authorities believed his version of events through which the dentist maintained that his wife
had accidentally shot herself while packing up for their day of hunting. Rudolph was thus
allowed to travel back to the United States, at which point he resumed his relationship with an
unidentified mistress whom he’d allegedly been dating for years. In the weeks following his
wife’s untimely death, Rudolph claimed 7 payouts from life insurance policies he’d taken out with
multiple different companies, in various states. In total, the dentist received approximately
$4.8 million as a result of Bianca’s passing. The FBI revealed the potentially inculpatory aspect
that Rudolph had met up with another romantic partner of his, in Las Vegas, the day after his
wife’s funeral. Three years later, investigators learned that one of the employees at Rudolph’s
dental practice had told her co-workers that she’d been in a secret relationship with the man for
nearly 2 decades. She’d also disclosed that she’d given Rudolph an ultimatum to leave his wife in
the months leading up to her death. In December of 2021, the dentist was arrested in Cabo San
Lucas following the culmination of a five-year investigation by the FBI. Rudolph was formally
charged with foreign murder and wire fraud for allegedly gunning down his wife in order to cash
out her life insurance policies and continue his relationship with his longtime mistress.
#6 - Scott Charmoli After Scott Charmoli had sold
Jackson Family Dentistry, in 2019, the practice’s new owner quickly realized that something wasn’t
right about the business’ records. According to Charmoli’s files, the dentist, who operated out
of Grafton, Wisconsin, had performed more than 30 crown procedures for every 100 patients,
an exorbitant rate that reportedly exceeded the state average roughly fivefold. The new business
owner reported the suspiciously high numbers to the authorities, prompting an extensive
investigation into Charmoli’s activities while at the helm of Jackson Family Dentistry. It
subsequently emerged that the former dentist had regularly falsified his patients’ medical records
and X-Ray results in order to convince them that they needed unnecessary tooth fillings. In many
cases, 61-year-old Charmoli had intentionally damaged or drilled holes in his patients’ teeth
so that he could charge them considerable fees to repair them. The Washington Post reported that,
during a 20-month period from January of 2018 to August of 2019, Charmoli had performed over 1,600
fraudulent crown installations, which brought in millions of dollars to his practice.
By the end of 2020, the dentist had an estimated net worth of $6.8 million,
largely due to the money he’d obtained through his predatory and deceptive scheme. In March of 2022,
it was reported that Charmoli had been convicted on five counts of healthcare fraud and two
counts of making a false statement. He also became the subject of a malpractice lawsuit
filed by nearly 100 of his former patients. The civil litigation was reportedly put on hold
pending Charmoli’s criminal sentencing, which was scheduled for June of 2022.
#5 - Harley Rodriguez-Bonilla
On February the 21st of 2020, undercover officers in Texas made an appointment to see a dentist
named Harley Rodriguez-Bonilla, who was suspected of operating his practice without a license.
Consequently, an investigator posing as a customer went to Rodriguez-Bonilla’s office,
which was located inside the man’s townhome. The officer waited in the living room until an
assistant took them upstairs. The 41-year-old dentist had reportedly outfitted one of his
bedrooms with an array of professional dental equipment and an examination table. Shortly after
the sting operation, which had been disguised as an appointment for one of the officers to get a
set of dentures fitted, Rodriguez-Bonilla was taken into custody and charged with practicing
unlicensed dentistry. Investigators spoke with one of the man’s patients who claimed to have
been charged $3,800 for the fitting of upper and lower veneers. Once in police custody,
Rodriguez-Bonilla confessed to also performing unlicensed dental work in California and Florida.
His bond was reportedly set at $25,000. #4 - Donald Dinello Jr
In March of 2013, it was reported that Donald Dinello Jr., a dentist at Oral Surgery Associates
in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, had been taken into the custody of state narcotics agents.
The 45-year-old’s arrest followed an extensive investigation by the state attorney general’s
office. A grand jury ultimately determined that Dinello had forged prescriptions
for various narcotic substances and stolen thousands of dollars from his own dental practice
without his business partner’s knowledge. Between 2008 and 2012, the dentist had written at least
88 fraudulent pain medication prescriptions for fictitious patients. In actuality, Dinello
allegedly abused the powerful drugs himself, which was why he’d neglected to record the scripts as
required by law. Furthermore, Dinello was accused of stealing dental supplies from Oral Surgery
Associates, which he then sold at a discount rate to another dental office where he’d secretly been
working. The grand jury found that the duplicitous dentist had deposited roughly $55,000 of the
proceeds from his dental supply sales into his personal bank accounts. Upon his arrest, Dinello
was charged with several offenses, including falsely prescribing a controlled substance and
theft. In July of 2014, he was sentenced to 15 to 30 months in county prison while also
being ordered to pay approximately $84,000 in restitution to his former business partner.
#3 - Robert Hofstetter New Jersey dentist Robert Hofstetter,
aged 69, was arrested in 2018 after a female employee discovered a camera hidden inside the
restroom at his office in Sewell. The man had reportedly placed a miniature pinhole camera
in a cardboard box that was positioned on a shelf in the bathroom. Hofstetter was alleged to have
used the concealed recording device to capture photographs of “unknowing subjects whose intimate
parts were exposed”. The unnamed woman who’d found the camera was accompanied by several other of the
dental’s office’s female employees when she reported her unnerving discovery to local police.
After his criminal practices were brought to light, Hofstetter was charged with invasion of
privacy, an offense which carries a maximum sentence of 1 year in jail and a $2,500
fine. When news of the incident was circulated online, many were quick to point out some of the
darkly ironic statements on Hofstetter’s website, which touted that his office had been equipped
with “state-of-the-art technology without sacrificing a warm and inviting atmosphere”.
#2 - Daniel Yacobi On October the 10th of 2017,
an elderly woman was found unconscious inside her home in Beverly Hills, California, by her 2 adult
children. Following the arrival of emergency responders, the homeowner was pronounced dead
at the scene. An autopsy subsequently determined that she’d been killed by way of strangulation.
The Beverly Hills Police Department launched an investigation into the matter, which led them to
conclude that the victim’s son, 36-year-old Daniel Yacobi, had been responsible for the murder.
Although it wasn’t revealed what had specifically led to Yacobi being identified as a suspect,
the police did indicate that they’d relied on a combination of physical and digital evidence
to make their determination. Yacobi, a prominent Southern California dentist who’d treated a number
of celebrity patients in the past, had uploaded a commemorative Facebook post in the wake of
his mother’s death with a caption that read in part, “Mom I love you and miss you dearly”. On
February the 12th of 2018, the man was arrested and formally charged with murder. According
to the findings of the police’s investigation, Yacobi had fatally strangled his mother within
24 hours of the emergency services being called to her home. It was reported that the dentist’s
motive for committing the murder was financial in nature. During his arraignment, Yacobi
entered a plea of not guilty, and he was held in custody without bond while awaiting his trial.
#1 - James Ryan
A dental surgeon from Montgomery County, Maryland, was arrested by local police as
he walked into work at Evolution Oral Surgery, in Germantown, on March the 22nd of 2022. During a
press conference later that day, the authorities detailed how they’d uncovered evidence that Dr.
James Ryan had been directly involved in the death of his girlfriend and former patient,
Sarah Harris. The latter had passed away on January the 26th after overdosing on prescription
drugs that Ryan had provided. The two had first met when 25-year-old Harris went to Evolution Oral
Surgery in order to have her wisdom teeth removed. Following the surgical procedure, Ryan had offered
her a job and, shortly thereafter, they started dating. Detectives recovered text messages shared
between the couple that ultimately proved vital in their effort to understand what had precipitated
the young woman’s untimely passing. Investigators found several phone conversations in which
Harris had asked for various medications including Ketamine, Diazepam, and Propofol, none of which
she’d had a legitimate medical reason for using. Ryan not only gave her the drugs she’d requested
but also allegedly instructed her on how to use them properly and even increase the potency of
their effects. The police reported that Harris had been living with Ryan at his home in Clarksburg,
and it was also gleaned from their text messages that the young woman had overdosed on another
occasion prior to her death. Ryan was ultimately charged with ten counts, including second-degree
murder, and he was held in custody without bond while awaiting his case’s legal proceedings.
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