East Bay judge revokes medical license for woman accused of drowning newborn baby

Defense no public threat from ‘unique’ allegations

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UNION CITY — An Alameda County judge has revoked a woman’s medical license, barring her from continuing to practice physical therapy as she remains out of custody facing charges of drowning her newborn baby in a bathtub in 2009.

Angela Onduto, 47, was released from jail last October after a judge set her bail at $125,000 and ordered her to surrender her passport while her murder case is pending. Then the California Attorney General’s office moved for Judge Kevin Wong to bar Onduto from practicing physical therapy while she’s out of custody.

Wong signed off on the AG’s request on Jan. 29, court records show. The AG’s office argued in court filings that the murder charge, combined with Onduto’s 2025 “assault” of a patient, were sufficient to establish she posed a “threat” to the public if allowed to continue at her job.

Onduto’s lawyer argued that the “unique” set of circumstances around the alleged baby murder — that she “labored for hours overnight and gave birth alone in her bathtub, then drowned the baby almost immediately post-partum and placed its body in the dumpster at her apartment complex” —  has virtually no similarity to anything she would encounter as a physical therapist.

“In addition, at the time of this incident, Ms. Onduto was already working as a licensed physical therapist assistant, and she continued to work in this capacity for the next 16 years,” Deputy Public Defender Sydney Bird Levin wrote in court filings. “There is no logical reason to conclude, based on the facts of this case, that Ms. Onduto’s continued work as a physical therapist assistant now suddenly poses a risk to public safety.”

As for the alleged assault, Onduto was charged with a misdemeanor in Colorado, but the case was dropped, Levin wrote.

“The patient spat food at Ms. Onduto, and Ms. Onduto then struck his hand. When he tried to hit her back, she grabbed his arm,” Levin wrote.

The AG’s office countered that Onduto admitted she “abused” a patient through a stipulation filed with the Colorado State Physical Therapy Board, which allowed her to continue practicing, court records show.

Onduto was arrested and charged last year, after she was linked through DNA to the 2009 killing of her newborn daughter. Authorities say the body of the infant was found in a dumpster near the apartment where Onduto lived at the time. After moving to Denver and being arrested last year, Onduto “detailed how she intentionally murdered Baby Jane Doe after giving birth at home in 2009,” prosecutors said in court filings.

“(Onduto) expressed no remorse, and said she knew while pregnant she had no intention of keeping the baby,” Deputy Attorney General Thomas Ostly wrote in court filings. “She admitted to discarding Baby Jane Doe in the dumpster. She denied diagnosis with any psychiatric conditions and/or drug use at the time of the incident.”

After the girl’s death, Union City police gave her a name: Matea — derived from the Hebrew meaning “gift from God” — and Esperanza, meaning “Hope” in Spanish. The department raised money for her headstone and continued to search DNA databases for a suspect until Onduto’s arrest last year. If she had lived, Matea would be turning 17 this May.

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