Gunning for the sheriff

Robert Frank Mansueto, a Coronado Cays dentist who has been in trouble for his actions in dentistry, filed suit in federal court February 25 against county sheriff William Gore, claiming that Mansueto was wrongly charged with practicing dentistry in Mexico without a California license. Mansueto is out on bail from the Vista Correctional Facility, according to the suit.

In charging Mansueto, the state noted that he had taken patients from the U.S. to Mexico for treatment. Mansueto charges this is “an abuse of prosecutorial discretion."

As revealed in the Reader two years ago, Mansueto in 1995 was placed on probation and suspended from practice for 60 days by the Board of Dental Examiners for altering patient records. Four years later, the board disciplined him again and expressed “profound concern” about his “dishonesty.” In 2005, the Dental Board of California (successor to the Board of Dental Examiners) revoked his license for negligently handling three patients.

In 2016, the state charged him with practicing dentistry without a license, treating the ill without a certificate, and practicing dentristry under a false name. He pleaded not guilty. He had been arrested at the border.

The board has criticized his misleading dental ads in the Union-Tribune. Mansueto, while practicing dental implant surgery in Mexico, also sells annuities. The Reader criticized him for placing U-T ads that made annuities appear to be bank instruments by using words such as “deposit” and “new savings accounts.”

Since 2010, Mansueto has held a valid license to practice dentistry in Mexico, says his suit. Thousands of Mexican dentists practice in Mexico without a California license, says Mansueto.

Mansueto could be imprisoned for more than four years if he loses the criminal case, says his suit.