SANTO DOMINGO.- The plastic surgeon Edgar Contreras has again been acquitted in a penal process charged with medical malpractice, and at least the third time in the last few years, including two previous fatalities.

A National District court ruled that the beleaguered physician wasn’t criminally responsibility on charges of involuntary homicide in the death of the journalist Isabel Vargas after a liposuction.

Ninth Penal Chamber Interim judge Evelyn Torres ruled for acquittal, noting that there was no evidence against the controversial surgeon.

Contreras, for years at the center of medical malpractice scandals, was also acquitted in the 2006 death of the ex Consul Maria de los Angeles Morel, who died shortly after a liposuction.

The Prosecution had requested two years in prison, a RD$100,000 fine and the cancellation of the surgeon’s medical license for the involuntary homicides resulting from malpractice.