Updated

Updated · Newsday · Jul 9

New York Fines Julie DeVuono $544,000 for Falsifying 162 Children's Vaccine Records

Updated

Updated · Newsday · Jul 9

New York Fines Julie DeVuono $544,000 for Falsifying 162 Children's Vaccine Records

Q: After profiting $1.5M from a massive vaccine fraud, why did this nurse avoid any jail time?

She avoided jail time mainly because the $1.5 million childhood-vaccine scheme was not prosecuted as a criminal case, and the separate criminal case she did face ended in a plea deal for probation instead of incarceration. The record $544,000 penalty announced by New York health officials was a civil, administrative punishment for falsifying immunization records for 162 children. Civil cases carry a lower burden of proof than criminal prosecutions. Suffolk County prosecutors said they did not believe they had enough evidence to prove the pediatric vaccine fraud beyond a reasonable doubt, so no criminal charges were brought on that part of the conduct. DeVuono was criminally charged in the related COVID-19 vaccine-card fraud case, along with other offenses including forgery, money laundering and a false opioid prescription. She pleaded guilty in 2023. Under that plea agreement, she received five years of probation and 840 hours of community service instead of a short jail term. She also had to surrender her nursing licenses and forfeit more than $1.2 million. So the short answer is that she did not “beat” the case entirely: she lost her licenses, forfeited a large sum, was put on probation, and now faces a record civil fine. But she avoided jail because prosecutors did not criminally charge the full pediatric-records scheme and because the criminal case that did go forward was resolved through a negotiated plea that did not require prison time.

3 articles · Updated · Newsday · Jul 9

$544,000 — New York’s largest vaccine-fraud penalty — was imposed on former Amityville nurse practitioner Julie DeVuono after a civil probe found she falsified records for 162 children.
State investigators said DeVuono charged $85 for homeopathic pellets, gave them to parents who opposed shots, and then entered the pellets as measles, polio and other vaccinations in the state registry.
The health department had sought a $1 million penalty, but an administrative law judge recommended $544,000 in February and Health Commissioner James McDonald approved the order on May 27; it was released Thursday.
Schools first flagged suspicious records in 2019 after New York ended religious vaccine exemptions, and a former employee testified DeVuono directed staff to log fake immunizations.
DeVuono, who lost her nursing licenses after pleading guilty in 2023 to a separate $1.2 million fake COVID-19 vaccine-card scheme, was not criminally charged in the pediatric case because prosecutors faced a higher burden of proof.