2 Women Charged in ID Theft of Alta Bates Summit Patients

By Jeff Burbank, Bay City News Service

Two women were charged with felony identity theft last week after Santa Clara police found mail stolen from breast cancer patients in their possession, a prosecutor said today, Wednesday.

Salina Soriano, 37, of San Jose, and Regina Kennedy, 36, whose address is not known, were arraigned on the charges last Friday in Santa Clara County Superior Court in San Jose, according to Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Deng.

Both are being held in county jail on $165,000 bail, Deng said.

Santa Clara police arrested Soriano and Kennedy on Nov. 5 after responding to a report that the pair had checked into the Avatar Hotel on Great America Parkway with a fraudulent credit card, according to Deng.

Inside their hotel room, officers recovered the stolen mail, along with ledgers and notebooks listing the personal information of more than 100 individuals, Deng said.

Among the evidence seized were several sheets of paper containing the names of women, all born the same year, who authorities later discovered were breast cancer patients at Sutter Health Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland, according to Deng.

Investigators tracked down 15 of the women who were breast cancer patients, and most confirmed they had been victims of identity theft, Deng said.

Some of the stolen mail has been returned to the victims, Deng said.

The U.S. Postal Service is also investigating the case and contacting victims, who include residents of Alameda, Santa Cruz and other Bay Area counties.