The text message appeared at 10:32 one night in April from an unknown number: “RESTRAINING ORDER FOR JACK DOLAN, AKA BRITTNY MEJIA”.

“Please stop cyberstalking,” it read.

Attached was a court order forbidding contact with Michael Mario Santillanes, a Newport Beach cosmetic surgeon and the subject of a Times investigation by the authors of this story into whether he continued practicing medicine after his license was revoked in 2020.

In his request to the court, Santillanes didn’t mention the people he named were Times reporters. Instead he described being menaced by a Russian thug, Dolan, and he suggested Mejia didn’t exist — claiming her Yelp profile was a fictitious identity created to stalk his former clients.

Based on Santillanes’ claims, the court granted his petition, which temporarily derailed The Times’ reporting. It eventually led everyone involved to a Santa Ana courthouse.

Before receiving the restraining order, the reporters had been in contact with Rien Peccia, Santillanes’ ex-wife, who said she’d reported her claims that he was still practicing to the Medical Board of California. She turned over to The Times emails she sent to the board, with links to Yelp reviews praising his work that were posted long after he lost his license.

Read Full Story: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-08-03/russian-thug-fake-yelp-fo...