MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Police arrested a duo from Texas Monday after accusing them of running an unlicensed post-operative surgery recovery house in southwest Miami-Dade.
One of them is accused of lying about working for the Army in order to rent both the recovery home and another residence.
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According to Miami-Dade police, Destiny Wilson, 33, and Montreal Lee, 34, who share a Dallas address, ran iMermaids Recovery House out of a residence at 5785 SW 89th Ave. in the Sunset area.
Various videos posted to the public iMermaids Instagram account show patients, some in hospital gowns, dancing and twerking before or after cosmetic surgeries.
“And She Twerks... Before Surgery” the caption of one of the videos, which shows a woman twerking while gripping a Mercedes-Benz, reads.
The caption on another video of a dancing patient reads: “She has the booty!! Tomorrow she gets the boobies to match(.)”
The account also displays bare-bottomed photos of patients who have recovered from cosmetic surgeries, including Brazilian Butt Lifts.
Search warrant served
Police said they went to the house on March 1 while executing a search warrant — and while they found five patients and an employee, Wilson and Lee were nowhere to be found, at least not in person.
An arrest report states that detectives did talk to Wilson through her Ring camera, however. The employee, paid $100 per shift, confirmed that Wilson and Lee ran the home and showed detectives text messages from Wilson telling her not to open the door or speak to authorities.
The report states authorities found “contaminated” and improperly-disposed “adult diapers, bandages, gloves, medical absorbant (sic) pads, medical gowns (and) bed pads” at the residence.
Police said the patients, who had collectively spent 13 nights at iMermaids, paid Wilson and Lee, listed in their arrest reports as otherwise unemployed, money for their recovery services through Cash App.
Unlicensed surgical recovery facilities continue to be a serious problem in South Florida.
Local 10 News has interviewed women who have described unsanitary conditions at homes they stayed in after recovering from cosmetic surgeries.
Fraud accusations and criminal charges
Police said Wilson provided landlords of the Southwest 89th Avenue home, along with a home she was residing in on Southwest 129th Terrace in Kendall, fraudulent paperwork.
Arrest reports state Wilson, who also used the alias “Destiny Session,” gave the landlords false earning statements from the Army in order to rent the houses.
Authorities said Wilson did not work for the Army and gave the landlords fraudulent social security numbers.
Months after the initial search, police said they located Wilson and Lee Monday near the intersection of Southwest 102nd Avenue and 112th Street in Kendall and arrested them.
They each face 13 felony counts of operating an assisted living facility without a license, plus two felony and two misdemeanor charges related to improper waste disposal.
Additionally, Wilson faced two counts of organized scheme to defraud in connection to the alleged false leasing documents.
Wilson was no longer listed in Miami-Dade jail records as of Tuesday afternoon, but Lee remained in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $12,000 bond.