GRAND RAPIDS, MI (WHTC-AM/FM, Jan. 28, 2026) – A 51-year-old Wayland woman who has claimed to be a nurse for some time is headed to federal prison for over six years.
Leticia Gallarzo was sentenced at US District Court in Grand Rapids on Monday to 75 months of incarceration on charges of creating false medical records that had indicated she was a licensed, registered nurse, and for aggravated identity theft for fraudulently assuming the name of a real nurse that had been licensed in Michigan. It stems from actions done between August of 2022 and May of 2023 at a unspecified nursing home, in which she became a unit manager. When her performance waned, she began looking for another job, and in the process, a prospective employer dug into her background and reported the matter to authorities.
Gallarzo initially pled guilty to fraud and identity theft charges in October of 2023, but then fled to first Illinois, and then California, resuming her pattern of claiming to be a nurse. She was finally tracked down near Los Angeles and brought back to West Michigan for sentencing.
This is the third time Gallarzo has been convicted of falsely representing herself as a nurse, with previous convictions coming in 2016 in Kent County, and a year later in southern Texas.
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