A one-floor, four-bedroom house in a suburban cul de sac contained 21 women, 17 of whom were paying at least $250 per night each as customers of an illegal surgery recovery house, Miami-Dade police say.
Arrest reports say the other four women told police they worked for the women allegedly running the house, Yenisley Diaz-Peraza aka Yenisley Peraza, 35, and South Miami-Dade’s Yenisel Diaz, 38. They were arrested Thursday at the West Miami-Dade house, 3122 SW 139th Ct.
Diaz-Peraza has been charged with 14 counts of running an assisted living facility without a license; hazardous waste violations; felony littering; misdemeanor nuisance to the public health; and a biological waste misdemeanor. She posted $81,000 bond and was released Friday.
Diaz is charged with running an assisted living facility without a license; hazardous waste violations; felony littering; misdemeanor nuisance to the public health; and a biological waste misdemeanor. She posted $16,000 bond and was released Friday.
Both will enter pleas at their Nov. 3 arraignment.
Though voices could be heard in the house and a woman had peeked out of a halfway raised garage door at a Herald reporter’s car, no one answered the door Friday afternoon.
Cosmetic surgery, surgery recovery and Yeni’s House
Post-operative care usually isn’t available for people who receive cosmetic or plastic surgery in office surgery centers, whether the surgery happened in a run down strip mall’s slot or a gleaming building resembling a hospital. Out-of-town recipients of breast jobs, Brazilian butt lifts, other forms of liposuction and other forms of surgery often have to arrange for someone to care for them until they’re ambulatory and surgical wounds have healed enough for a plane ride or long drive.
Into this care gap comes recovery houses. There’s no specific license for recovery houses in Florida. Guidelines and licenses exist, however, for assisted living facilities, which is why Diaz and Diaz-Peraza are charged with running an ALF without a license.
Also, multiple people in surgery recovery creates large amounts of blood, urine and fecal matter-covered biomedical waste, which laws say have to be dealt with differently than regular garbage.
Police say they received a tip that a house was being run out of 3122 SW 139th Ct. under “Yeni’s House.” Diaz-Peraza registered Yeni’s House LLC with the state on Jan. 28, 2022, and she and Diaz are the only listed “authorized persons.” but with a mailing address that Miami-Dade property records say is Diaz-Peraza’s Cutler Bay home.
Though that was also listed as Yeni’s House’s principal address, Miami-Dade property records say the alleged recovery house on Southwest 139th Court is a rental and was last sold in 1988.
READ MORE: An illegal Miami recovery house and the deadly doctors the operators endorsed
When they hit the house with a search warrant Thursday, police said they found 17 customers, three of which were pre-operative. Each had paid a $250 deposit over the phone and gave a credit card for charges from $250 to $300 per night to Diaz or Diaz-Peraza. At $250 per night, 17 people would make $4,250 per day.
The customers, the arrest report says, told police the employees, Diaz and Dias-Peraza helped them with bathing, dressing, eating, personal hygiene, taking medication and going to the toilet. Assistance with those basic tasks means a place can be counted as an assisted living facility.
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