Christine Daniel, a California physician offered something that every terminally ill patient yearns to hear – the promise of a possible cure. But now the Mission Hills, Calif. doctor stands accused of using her influence as an ordained Pentecostal minister and inducing dozens of desperately ill people nationwide to buy her expensive brown liquid infused with herbs. Daniel was arrested Thursday at her home in Northridge and charged with breaking several federal laws, including committing wire fraud.
Daniel appeared in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles Friday where her bail was set at $150,000. She’s set to be arraigned on Oct. 19. Her lawyer, Manuel Miller, of Woodland Hills, Calif., said in a statement that he believes his client is innocent and if the case goes to trial, she will be acquitted. Here’s a link to the WSJ story about her arrest and a link to where the WSJ first wrote about the case, and the complaints against Daniel, in January, 2007.
Daniel was able to induce at least 55 people to drink her mixtures, spending more than $1 million, after she appeared on a talk show on a religious network in 2002. On the show, Daniel said her regimen had a cure rate of 60% or better.
The arrest capped a six-year federal and state investigation triggered by the complaints to a consumer agency made by Easton Shakespeare, a Cambridge, Mass. man who lost his wife to cancer after following the doctor’s regimen.
In 2003, Minna Shakespeare, a registered nurse, had such an advanced form of lung cancer that the tumor was pressing into her back, shortening her breath, Mr. Shakespeare, told the Journal in 2006. Mrs. Shakespeare had trusted Dr. Daniel because she was a Christian, even praying with the doctor over the phone. Mrs. Shakespeare paid more than $13,000 for the herbs, only to die in four months after her first dose.
Former employees of the doctor’s, and well as family members of patients, were questioned before the grand jury. At least three dozen who followed the regimen have died, some after they stopped conventional therapies, sometimes at Daniel’s urging, an official said.
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