NEWARK — Kasia Rivera advertised her beauty services at bars and stores in East Orange, passing out her business card that promised silicone enhancement — day or night — from the convenience of her home, authorities said.

In early May, having heard about Rivera from a friend, Justin Street made an appointment with the 34-year-old woman at her Glenwood Avenue home for a penis enlargement, according to the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office and Street’s father.

"He talked to me about it but I didn’t think he would do anything like that," said the father, Kysung Mills. "I don’t think he knew what he was doing."

On May 6, one day after receiving the injection, the 22-year-old security guard and father of two young boys was dead of a silicone embolism. The injection, shot directly into Street’s bloodstream, spread the silicone through his body and shut down his organs, the prosecutor’s office said.

The death was ruled a homicide and after a months-long investigation, Rivera was arrested last week.

In Superior Court in Newark Tuesday, Rivera pleaded not guilty to reckless manslaughter and unauthorized practice of medicine. Clad in a black sweater over a red blouse, Rivera stood sullen but calm as her attorney conferred with the judge. She spoke in a near whisper and when the proceeding was over, was escorted back to jail.

She is being held in lieu of $75,000 bail. If convicted, Rivera — who has no prior criminal record — faces up to 10 years in prison.

Her public defender, John McMahon, would not comment.

Investigators are trying to determine whether Rivera administered silicone injections to anyone else. Authorities say women are the most frequent recipients in these type of cases, usually seeking enhancements to their lips, breasts and buttocks.

Complications can arise from a large quantity being injected, or if the material is industrial grade, counterfeit or compromised, experts say. Investigators are trying to determine the exact type of liquid silicone that was used and from where it was purchased.

In a tearful plea after Tuesday’s brief court hearing, Street’s mother urged anyone who may have received a silicone injection from Rivera to step forward. Investigators who later searched Rivera’s home found silicone there, but so far no one else has spoken with authorities.

"Don’t be ashamed," said Justin’s mother, China Street. Regarding her son, she added: "People can judge him. They can mock him, but these people who did this need to be stopped. Our youth are dying at the hands of people that are serving a god called money."

She described her son as a "kind, caring person. A beautiful spirit who enjoyed family and friends."

The kind of black-market cosmetic enhancement Rivera allegedly offered can be both dangerous to the person receiving it and financially lucrative to the person administering it, Assistant Essex County Prosecutor William Neafsey said.

Similar procedures done by a licensed professional ordinarily cost thousands of dollars.

However, Neafsey said, Rivera was unlicensed and has no medical training. Street, who grew up in East Orange, likely paid about $500 for his injection, authorities said.

Last year, the prosecutor’s office brought charges against a New Brunswick model for illegally providing buttocks-enhancing injections to several women in Essex County. The victims were hospitalized, some suffering serious infections that required multiple surgeries.

RELATED COVERAGE:



• N.J. woman pleads not guilty to giving man fatal penis enhancement injection

• N.J. man dies from penis enhancing injection, authorities say; woman charged with manslaughter

• Black-market cosmetic surgeries hospitalize six N.J. women

• N.J. model is indicted for allegedly injecting others with buttocks-enhancing gel without medical license



A judge threw out the case in October, saying the indictment against the woman, Anivia Cruz-Dilworth, did not clearly state what law was allegedly broken. The prosecutor’s office will seek to re-indict her.

And on Monday, an unlicensed cosmetologist in New York City was sentenced to 9 months in jail after getting convicted of criminally negligent homicide for administering a fatal silicone injection, the Associated Press reported. The victim, a woman, had become ill after receiving numerous injections into her buttocks and thigh.

In Street’s case, Kysung Mills said his son didn’t know Rivera but had heard about her from a friend. Mills, 42, said he knows several women, and one man, who have received silicone enhancement, though none from Rivera. "I wouldn’t recommend nobody to do it. It’s a dangerous procedure. You see the outcome," he said.

Mills recounted a conversation he had with his son shortly before his death, when the younger man was considering the injection. "I told him that stuff don’t work. You got to be blessed for what you have."