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Impostor nurse opens new medspa, recruits unsuspecting workers

Posted at 8:26 AM, Nov 14, 2019
and last updated 2019-11-14 10:34:47-05

PHOENIX, Ariz. -- An impostor nurse exposed in an KNXV investigation last year has been running another medspa in Phoenix under various personal and business names.

It’s not clear if Ondranique Walls is again treating patients herself. But multiple nurses who unsuspectingly applied to work at Walls's medspa have contacted KNXV worried that she will steal their identity and again treat patients.

“It was panic,” one nurse said after she discovered KNXV’s previous report . “I thought, well, she’s going to use my name to inject people…She’s going to damage those clients with my name.”

In recent months, Walls has been running a medspa under multiple names, either "Flawlessly Radiant" or "Age Rewind," at 4716 E. Thunderbird Road in a rented room inside Phenix Salon Suites.

Services for the business have been advertised on websites for the businesses and Groupon.

In response to a request for comment, Walls sent KNXV a profanity-laced email.

“You need to leave me alone with this bullsh**!” Walls wrote. “I’m getting a lawyer and yes the f***I did have a licensed nurse and medical director. All of which was provided to the business owner along with business insurance so F*** OFF! WITH ALL YOUR FAKE NEWS! TRY SOMEONE ELSE CUZ I’M NOT HER! AND LAST I CHECKED THERE’S NO LAW AGAINST ME USING MY MIDDLE NAME!”

A manager for Phenix Salon Suites has not responded to a request for comment.

In March 2018, KNXV went undercover to show how Walls had stolen the identity of a nurse who applied to work for her and treated multiple patients.

After the report, the state nursing board officially labeled Ondranique Walls as an impostor and posted her name on its website.

The Scottsdale Police Department also submitted charges of identity theft to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office for review late last year. But so far, police and prosecutors have not arrested or charged Walls with any crimes.

A spokesperson for the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office said it could not provide an information about the case.

“This is not right,” said a nurse. “(The system) is broken.”

One nurse, who agreed to an on-camera interview and whose identity KNXV agreed to protect, said Walls called herself “Charlatola” instead of Ondranique during the application process, interview, and at the business. Charlatola is Walls’s middle name.

In addition to being exposed as an impostor, Walls also owes at least $50,000 in lawsuits to multiple people and businesses, according to court records.

For her new medspa, Walls has filed documents using variations of her middle name and a different last name. In one document, she wrote her name was “Char Bell.” She also listed her adult daughter on business documents as a principal and organizer, records show.

“(It seemed like) she’s trying to hide something,” the nurse said.

The nurse told KNXV she called Phoenix police and contacted the Attorney General’s Office to report her concerns about Ondranique Walls’s new business.

She said police told her there was nothing they could do and didn’t take a report or her information.

A letter provided to KNXV shows the Attorney General’s Office acknowledged receipt of the nurse’s complaint and referred her to the Arizona Medical Board, which has no jurisdiction over criminal matters and does not oversee real or fake nurses.

Since opening several months ago, Walls’ new medspa has racked up several complaints online at consumer websites and the Better Business Bureau.

KNXV attempted to visit her medspa this week but was told by an on-site manager that Walls had just moved out a few days before. KNXV also discovered that Walls has been claiming to run a healthcare staffing company called “Priority Healthcare Staffing Agency” and was recruiting nurses.

The business was filed with the corporation commission and posted on various healthcare-focused job websites.

This story was originally published by Dave Biscobing at KNXV.