N.J. Model Is Indicted For Allegedly Injecting Others With Buttocks-Enhancing Gel

4th NW Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

From NJ by Alexi Friedman

A 28-year-old New Brunswick model who claims to have appeared on “The View” television show has been indicted on charges she practiced medicine without a license, stemming from an incident in March when six women from Essex County ended up in hospitals after receiving buttocks-enhancement injections containing the same material contractors use to caulk bathtubs, authorities said.

The woman, Anivia Cruz-Dilworth, 28, was charged in a three-count indictment, the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office announced.

The women showed up in the emergency rooms of area hospitals complaining of problems after having received the buttocks-enhancement injections. An investigation revealed Cruz-Dilworth had injected women with what she described as hydro-gel. Several of the women sustained serious bacterial infections requiring them to undergo surgeries.

The women who underwent these procedures were put in touch with Cruz-Dilworth by word-of-mouth at area beauty salons, said Assistant Prosecutor Peter Sepulveda, who is handling the case. Cruz-Dilworth would visit the women’s homes to perform the procedure. In one case, she did the procedure at her home, a gated community in New Brunswick.

“Her actions caused a lot of harm. Many of these women had to undergo surgery following these illegal procedures," Sepulveda said. “One woman had to undergo five separate hospitalizations and multiple surgeries as a result of the injuries sustained from the unlawfully performed buttocks injections."

In her biography, Cruz-Dilworth describes herself as a 5-foot-10 full-figure model. She says she has been represented by Wilhelmina and Clicks modeling agencies in New York City and has appeared on “The View’’ and in Essence Magazine and Oprah’s O Magazine.

She is scheduled to appear in Superior Court on Dec. 9.