Teen in fake doc case arrested again
He faces new charges of grand theft and writing a bad check
For about five hours Monday, the teenager accused of illegally posing as a doctor and stealing from a patient was back in Palm Beach County Jail after his arrest on new charges of grand theft and writing a bad check.
Courtroom deputies took Malachi Love-Robinson, 19, into custody, during a brief hearing regarding lawyer Leonard Feuer’s request to cut ties with him for reasons involving an apparent ethical conflict thatwere not made public.
Jail records show Love-Robinson, who had been free on $18,000 bail, was released after $8,000 more in bail was posted.
The bad check allegedly was written for $1,500 as a down payment to West Palm Nissan on May 23, 2015, according to court documents released Monday. Details on the new grand theft charge, concerning an Oct. 13 offense, were not immediately available.
Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Krista Marx granted the defense attorney’s request to get off the high-profile case and appoint the public defender’s office to represent Love-Robinson on the new charges and the 12 existing felony counts.
Love-Robinson is expected to appear in court next for an Oct. 5 hearing with his
new lawyer. For now, his trial remains set to start Nov. 7.
Feuer, who had been working on the case for free since his hiring in late June, told the Sun Sentinel that his removal “had nothing to do with money.”
In a pleading filed last Tuesday, Feuer wrote that he called the Florida Bar Ethics Hotline, which advised he had no option other than halting his representation of Love-Robinson.
Feuer indicated the issue came about through no fault of his own, and it became clear that there was an “incompatibility” with continuing to represent Love-Robinson and complying with the state’s Rules of Professional Conduct for attorneys.
Feuer also noted that going public with the details may give prosecutors an advantage.
Two weeks ago, the attorney won a delay in the scheduling of Love-Robinson’s trial, as a possible insanity defense was being explored.
Love-Robinson, who’s accused of donning a white lab coat and stethoscope and portraying himself as a doctor in a West Palm Beach clinic and on house calls, was ordered by a judge in March to undergo a mental health examination. He has been obtaining treatments since then.
Feuer asked for, and received, the judge’s approval to use $1,563 in public funds to obtain 1,563 pages of treatment records from St. Mary’s Medical Center. Love-Robinson asked for permission for taxpayers to bear the expense of various court costs after swearing he doesn’t have money.
Love-Robinson was arrested Feb. 16 and again on March 1 and charged with: two counts of practicing medicine without a license; two counts of practice of naturopathy without a license; three counts of forgery; two counts of grand theft from a person 65 or older; and three counts of fraudulent use of personal identification information.
These charges are punishable by up to 70 years in prison. The new charges are grand theft over $20,000, and obtaining property in return for a worthless check, draft or debit card— together punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
In July 2015, Love-Robinson was sued in Palm Beach County Civil Court over a $1,800 bounced check that was allegedly used as a down payment on a 2016 Mazda 6 sedan priced at $27,070, according to court records.
“I am appealing to you as a human being that made a mistake,” Love-Robinson later wrote in a response to the lawsuit, which he lost in April, records show.
Love-Robinson was first accused of pretending to be a doctor in January 2015. Then 17, he peeked in on at least one gynecological exam at St. Mary’s Medical Center, according to a West Palm Beach police report.
Records show that last October he opened a clinic in Boynton Beach but closed it after he was issued a cease-and-desist order that same month from the Florida of Department of Health because he didn’t have a medical license.
In an Oct. 14 meeting with state investigators, Love-Robinson said a college transcript and diploma fromthe Southwest College of Natural Medicine and a diploma from Arizona State University that he had presented at the clinic were fraudulent, according to records.
Love-Robinson said he had a degree from an online Christian school, and advised that medical doctors on staff would be consulted if a client needed a medication change, according to a report of the interview.
Yet the state investigators determined that Love-Robinson’s role at the clinic went too far, saying that for nearly a month he was “leading the public to believe [he] was a licensed medical doctor, without holding an active license,” the report said.
Later, investigators got a tip that Love-Robinson was again practicing medicine without a license from an office called The New Birth New Life Medical Center, at 4700 N. Congress Ave. in West Palm Beach, according to an arrest report.
Love-Robinson was presenting himself as a licensed physician and had employees, but no one there was licensed to diagnose and treat patients, the report said. He was arrested in February after allegedly conducting a physical examination of a female undercover officer, who came to his office complaining of feeling sick.
Love-Robinson allegedly told the officer that he was a “doctor of homeopathic medicine” and a health care practitioner specializing in all-natural treatments. He also said he had an “MD” on staff to prescribe antibiotics for other physical ailments, the arrest report said.
Amongthe second set of charges, Love-Robinson was accused of stealing personal checks from Anita Morrison, an 86-year-old West Palm Beach woman he visited at her home several times concerning severe intestinal pain.
Officials say Love-Robinson tapped Morrison’s checking account to make $34,504 in payments for his Nissan car loans and credit cards. He's also accused of forging three checks totaling $2,794.
Because of Morrison’s “deteriorating” condition, her testimony has been preserved on video in case she is not well enough to take the witness stand.