Two at Medical Clinic Charged After Santa Ana Sting

The operator of a Santa Ana clinic and his assistant were charged Thursday with practicing medicine without a license following a months-long investigation into their treatment of patients, authorities said.

Dr. Alonzo E. Lockhart and assistant Noe Alonzo Villalobos are scheduled to appear at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana today to answer felony charges that they operated illegally out of the Samuel Clinic in the 1300 block of East 1st Street.

“We consider this extremely serious,” said Byron Nelson, the deputy district attorney handling the case.

According to Nelson, the charges stem from a complaint made by a patient earlier in the year. The state Board of Medical Examiners conducted a sting operation April 29 during which an investigator posing as a patient was examined, diagnosed and treated for an imagined ailment by Villalobos, who does not have a medical license. Although Lockhart does have a license, Nelson said, he was not present during the treatment and was charged for allowing it to happen in his clinic.

“The modus operandi is that [Villalobos] deals with at least 70% of the patients,” Nelson said. “He does the initial review, examines them, diagnoses them and even treats them. It’s a felony because of the potential danger.”