The trial of a woman charged with practicing dentistry without a license ended in a mistrial Tuesday morning.
A juror looked up the case online and told other jurors that there was “more to the case than meets the eye,” according to the judge.
Cristina Caro Valencia, 56, is accused of operating invasive dental procedures without a license for over a decade out of an office in the back of her husband’s veterinary hospital on Virginia Beach Boulevard.
The trial ended after the prosecution had presented five witnesses – two detectives with the Virginia Beach police department, a married couple who were former patients of Caro Valencia and a Chesapeake 17-year veteran dentist.
A juror, on the morning of the second day of the trial, told the judge that she overheard another juror say that they had searched Caro Valencia’s case online during lunch the day before.
She said the content of the case wasn’t discussed, but the juror implied that there was more information about the case on social media and in the news than they had heard in court.
Caro Valencia was arrested after police found a dentist chair, dental tools, drills, probes and molds in the back room and hallway of the Veterinary Hospital of Virginia Beach, according to a search warrant filed in 2021.
Caro Valencia was trained and licensed as a dentist in her home country – Colombia. After becoming a citizen and emigrating to the United States in the 90s, her husband Andrew Silverstone said she worked in a Virginia Beach dental lab.
Silverstone, 54, said his wife worked with members of the Hispanic community to help translate their needs to other dentists because she knew that many of them – undocumented, without access to dental insurance or credit cards and lacking proficiency in English – often struggled with accessing dental care.
During the course of the investigation, according to a lawsuit and Silverstone’s account of doorbell footage, Virginia Beach police searched the homes of Caro Valencia and her husband and confiscated the funds in their bank accounts, other financial assets, electronics, U.S. passports, vehicle and other property.
A year ago, Silverstone filed a federal lawsuit against Eileen Davis, the detective who spearheaded the investigation into his wife, and Virginia Beach Police Chief Paul Neudigate, claiming that for over 15 months, police “unlawfully held” his assets and property without an explanation, legal process or filing of charges, violating his constitutional rights.
Zachary Burkholder, Associate City Attorney, filed a response on behalf of Davis and Neudigate in federal court denying Silverstone’s allegations and maintaining that the seizure and retention of his property was lawful.
A trial for the lawsuit is set for August 17 at the federal courthouse in Norfolk. Caro Valencia’s trial will be rescheduled on March 10.
Nori Leybengrub, 757-349-3523, [email protected]