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"Quack Doc" Pleads Guilty to Assault
Dean Faiello, a cocaine addict who pretended to be a doctor pleaded guilty Monday in connection with the death of a woman who died during a medical procedure he was performing on her in his Manhattan apartment two years ago.

Faiello, 47, pleaded guilty to first-degree assault in the death of Maria Cruz, 35, in exchange for a sentence of 20 years in prison.

Faiello said Cruz, a financial analyst, began having seizures after he gave her the anesthetic Lidocaine on April 13, 2003, while she was being treated with laser treatment for hair growth on her tongue.

He told state Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro he called a real doctor for advice but ignored it, and failed to call 911 because he was worried about being arrested. Faiello said he was a cocaine addict at the time.

He stashed Cruz's body under a concrete slab at his former home in Newark, N.J., where she was found 10 months later.

Faiello, who was also indicted in October 2002 for practicing medicine without a license, fled to Costa Rica after pleading guilty to that charge in June 2003.

He was extradited from Costa Rica in May 2005, where he had been working as a male go-go dancer at a gay night club in downtown San José.