Dr. Michael Clair pleaded guilty earlier this month to a list of charges, including assault and battery, defrauding Medicaid of $130,000, illegally prescribing medications and witness intimidation.

Clair must’ve been in serious financial trouble because prosecutors stated that he sometimes used sections of paper clips when performing root canals in an effort to save money. As a result, some of his patients reported infections and other problems.

One patient, Brenda Almeida, said that her teenage son’s tooth turned black and had to be removed after Clair performed a root canal on him in 2005. She said Clair also performed shoddy dental work on her other two children. She wasn’t particularly too please with the sentencing the former doctor received as she watched him get sentenced. She felt that the sentence was light and that his punishment does not justify his behavior.

“He put my kids in pain for months … I hope he rots there,” she said after Judge Richard Moses sentenced Clair to a year in the Bristol County House of Correction.

Prosecutors had initially asked  for a sentence of five to seven years however, the judge said that due to Clair’s acceptance of responsibility, lack of a criminal record and “certain mental health issues” Clair is dealing with in deciding on the one-year sentence.

Moses sentenced Clair to 2½ years, with all but one year suspended, followed by five years of probation. Clair did not speak at all during the sentencing. The only time he said something, it was to say thank you to the judge.

 So do you agree with Brenda Almeida? Do you believe his sentencing was too light or should he have been charged with a heavier sentence?