Fake dentist avoids prison after patient's death

An unlicensed Brooklyn dentist whose patient died after passing out at his office during a procedure was not given a jail sentence, according to a recent Daily News story.

Alexander Poperetchny, 47, had been practicing in the U.S. without a license for 16 years. The 71-year-old woman he was treating passed out in his offices and later died of a heart attack.

"She would have died anyway," said Poperetchny's lawyer, Robert Race, in the Daily News story. "She had a circulatory problem. It didn't matter if it was a licensed dentist, you, me, or the man in the moon."

Supreme Court Justice Joseph McKay, who gave Poperetchny five years' probation, said the idea of putting him in jail for practicing without a license would be unprecedented and inappropriate, the story concluded.