MIAMI — A woman who police said went by “Dr. Lori” bragged about her body sculpting clinic’s success on Instagram, proclaiming, “Imagine being a Millionaire off BOOTY” and exhorting her followers to “get rich in this spa s--- or quit.”
But Miami police said “Dr. Lori” was actually Latonya Shanice Starks, who is not a licensed doctor ― and is instead a 33-year-old felon with no “legitimate job.”
Detectives said she was illegally performing injections ― some of which left patients with scarring, pain and abscesses. In one case, police said a victim believed the complications ultimately led her to have a miscarriage.
Authorities said Starks, of Aventura, ran Lori Dior Miami Med Spa at 5789 NW Seventh Ave. in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood.
‘Lumps,’ ‘irritation’, ‘abscesses’ and a miscarriage
Miami police said they received complaints in May and June about Starks who went to “Dr. Lori” to receive Sculptra, described in arrest reports as a “dermal filler.”
In one case, police said a woman who said she found Starks through the loridior_beautyspa Instagram page went to the clinic in September for Sculptra, “represented to her as a fat-dissolving injection.”
“The victim later learned she was allegedly injected with lemon bottle, which is a foreign fat-dissolving substance that is not approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration,” a Miami Police Department detective wrote in one of the arrest reports. “The victim stated that after receiving the injections, the substance later began breaking through her skin in the same areas where she had been injected.”
Police said the woman “suffered a severe adverse medical reaction and required repeated hospitalization over a period of approximately three months.”
The woman, who became pregnant in January, believed that she had a miscarriage months later because of medications she had to take to treat the complications, one arrest report states.
In another case, police said a woman who also found Starks through Instagram went to the clinic with her sister in October for injections.
One of the women, who said she was trying to get rid of “hip dips,” said Starks used an insulin needle to inject what the victim believed was Sculptra into her buttocks and abdomen area using an insulin-type needle, the report states.
An MPD detective noted that the substance is “typically injected from a larger syringe than an insulin-type needle because the particles can clog it.”
Police said the victim, who paid Starks $1,200, never saw a Sculptra box and wasn’t sure if that’s what she actually received. They said the victim also paid Starks $650 for her sister, who was in South Florida from Kentucky to celebrate her birthday, to get injections as a gift.
According to an arrest report, both women said they began experiencing “lumps and irritation” after getting the injections. Both women, police said, had to have multiple procedures to get abscesses drained and scarring repaired and both continue to suffer pain at their injection sites.
One of the women said she even lost her job “because she has missed work due (to) the multiple doctor appointments that she has had to go to repair her scarring and drain her abscesses,” police said.
Instagram posts and a felony record
Police said they reviewed the loridior_beautyspa Instagram, where videos showed “Starks filming herself while stating that she is no longer performing injections and instructing individuals to stop contacting her to request injections.”
A post on the account reads, “Lori Dior ONLY does trainings. I do not provide services. I can refer y’all to people but I stop (sic) doing liquid bbls 2 years ago.”
“My classes be soo GHETTO,” a post about a training session read.
Other posts include advertisements for Lori Dior’s “signature POWERBOOTY™ Buttock Enhancement Machine," showing what appear to be AI-generated clips of women having their buttocks significantly inflated by the machines on a beach.
Detectives said records revealed that Lori Dior was never licensed with the state and “further investigation revealed that Starks had previously received a cease-and-desist order from the state of Georgia for similar operations prior to conducting business in Miami.”
Georgia Department of Corrections records show Starks, a native of the Peach State, was convicted of committing multiple crimes, including first-degree forgery and shoplifting, in suburban Atlanta in 2010. Miami police said she was on probation at the time of her arrest on Wednesday.
Traffic stop and arrest
Starks, police said, was taken into custody after a traffic stop near her home in Aventura.
A search of her vehicle revealed “medical and cosmetic equipment, including needles, a sharps container, bandages, and packaging labeled Sculptra 150,” police said.
They said they received a warrant to search her apartment at the Portsview at the Waterways condo building at 3610 Yacht Club Drive and found “additional medical and cosmetic equipment.”
Authorities said Starks claimed that a registered nurse named “Kate,” whose last name, phone number or credentials she couldn’t provide, was doing the injections.
Starks is now facing three charges of practicing healthcare without a license causing serious injury, as well as two counts of felon in possession of a firearm.
Records show she was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a total bond of more than $30,000.
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