New details have emerged about a Florida teenager who was recently arrested and accused of posing as a physician.
Malachi Love-Robinson, 18, was arrested last Tuesday and charged with practicing medicine without a license. He was arrested after he allegedly performed a physical exam on an undercover officer at a fake medical office he ran in West Palm Beach, Fla.
Since his arrest, more details have surfaced about Mr. Love-Robinson and new accusations have been brought against him as well.
Investigators began looking into Mr. Love-Robinson last October after they were tipped off that he was practicing medicine without a license. He was issued a cease-and-desist letter, but he allegedly continued to practice.
Mr. Love-Robinson has a unique name, which stuck out to Florida Department of Health investigators when they reopened the case. It immediately became clear they were dealing with the same person who had been warned about practicing medicine without a license in the past.
Mr. Love-Robinson was caught in January 2015 pretending to be a physician at St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach. He posed as a physician at the hospital for a month before he was ousted. No charges were filed against the then 17-year-old regarding the incident.
After his recent arrest, Mr. Love-Robinson was thrown into the national spotlight and his name struck a familiar note with Palm Beach County School District police, according to the Palm Beach Post. The school district released a report Friday detailing how Mr. Love-Robinson went from high school to high school in 2014 claiming to be a physician who was interested in joining the schools' medical academies as a staff member. When the then 16-year-old was questioned by police, he said he "knew he was not a medical doctor, believes he is a compulsive liar and is aware that he may have" an unspecified medical condition, according to the report. The medical condition was redacted from the school district's report.
Mr. Love-Robinson's recent arrest also caught the attention of an investor who opened the West Palm Beach medical clinic with the teenager. Perseus Wells, who invested $10,000 to open the clinic, said Mr. Love-Robinson told him he was a "natural doctor," according to a WTVR news report. To support his claim, Mr. Love-Robinson provided Mr. Wells with transcripts and documents from Arizona State University.
In an interview that aired last Thursday on ABC's "Good Morning America," Mr. Love-Robinson said he never held himself out as a medical doctor. "I'm not portraying [myself] as an MD. I never said I've gone to school to be an MD," he said. Mr. Love-Robinson claims he had the title "doctor" in front of his name because he has a PhD, but he wouldn't say what field his doctorate degree was in.
Although Mr. Love-Robinson continues to say he didn't pretend to be a physician, he did admit to investigators that he provided fake diplomas from Arizona State University and the Southwest College of Natural Medicine to a Boynton Beach, Fla.-based clinic last fall, according to a Sun Sentinel report.
In addition to being accused of practicing medicine without a license, Mr. Love-Robinson also faces charges of grand theft and cashing checks he allegedly stole during house calls with an 86-year-old patient, according to the Sun Sentinel.
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