3 Arrested on Suspicion of Bribing Health Inspector
The owner and two others associated with a Los Angeles-based nursing home chain were arrested Thursday on suspicion of bribing a local inspector for advance notice of government health inspections, the state attorney general’s office announced.
Marlene Z. Robertson, 62, owner of MZR Inc., and Isidra A. Agulto, 53, MZR’s corporate administrator, were each booked into Los Angeles County Jail on five counts of bribery and one count of conspiracy to commit bribery. Josemar A. Mercado, 49, reportedly Robertson’s boyfriend, was booked on one count of conspiracy to commit bribery.
According to court papers, the charges stemmed from an undercover probe that started after Agulto in December gave an L.A. County Department of Health Services inspector a Christmas card containing $500.
Robertson, Mercado and Agulto then took the inspector out for dinner and offered to hire her as a “consultant” at $100 an hour. The assignment: warn them about impending inspections.
The inspector, who went undercover, met with the MZR officials four more times. An attorney general’s spokesman said they gave her an additional $6,500 in cash and an $800 Prada purse, and promised to provide her with a luxury car and an expenses-paid trip to France.
MZR owns Huntington Health Care Center in Los Angeles, as well as nursing homes in Pasadena, Compton, Fresno, Hemet and Fontana.
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