CANOGA PARK : Hygienist Faces Licensing Charge

A Canoga Park woman was charged Thursday with working as a dental hygienist without a license and, as a result, with violating probation imposed after she was convicted of the same offense last year.

Evaleene Leah Shapiro, 45, is scheduled to be arraigned in Los Angeles Municipal Court on Aug. 6 on one misdemeanor count of violating the state Business and Professional Code section that requires anyone working as a registered dental hygienist to be licensed by the California Board of Dental Examiners.

If convicted, she faces a maximum sentence of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine, said Mike Qualls, a spokesman for the Los Angeles city attorney’s office. She was convicted March 28, 1991, of working illegally as a hygienist for dentists between 1986 and 1990 and was sentenced to 15 days on a California Department of Transportation work crew, ordered to pay $2,000 and placed on three years probation.

Thursday’s criminal complaint addresses Shapiro’s employment by a Northridge dentist who fired her last July after three months when he discovered that the license number that she had given him belonged to another person, Qualls said. Shapiro also pleaded no contest April 7 to attempting to use a forged prescription to obtain tranquilizers. She was sentenced to 100 hours of community service.