Accused teen ‘doctor’ faces felony fraud trial

Defendant, 19, pleads not guilty to four charges

The high-profile case of Malachi Love-Robinson, the West Palm Beach teenager accused of illegally posing as a doctor, is on hold until after his trial March 15 on felony fraud charges in northern Virginia.

In Stafford County Circuit Court on Friday, prosecutors added a fourth count, a forgery-type offense, to go along with three previously filed charges that resulted in a grand jury indictment earlier this month, online court records show.

Love-Robinson is not accused of passing himself off as a licensed doctor there. The Virginia charges are based on his alleged attempts on Sept. 9 to buy a $35,000 Jaguar from a car dealership about 50 miles south of Washington, D.C., using someone else’s credit, authorities said.

During an arraignment hearing Friday, Love-Robinson, 19,

pleaded not guilty to all four charges, according to the court’s website. A judge scheduled the jury trial.

Despite an active Palm Beach County warrant for Love-Robinson’s arrest, he will remain in Rappahannock Regional Jail without bond until the case is resolved there, his Stafford-based attorney, George Marzloff, has said.

Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Krista Marx had signed the warrant after she learned of the Virginia charges. Love-Robinson had been free on $26,000 bail at the time of his arrest in Stafford County.

Virginia officials say Love-Robinson used his godmother’s name on a car loan application without permission, used her Social Security number, and used her credit card without her knowledge to buy iPads and a cellphone for $1,200.

Love-Robinson told deputies he was in town to buy cars for himself and his godmother, according to a news release. A bystander captured Love-Robinson’s arrest at the dealership on cellphone video.

He is charged with attempt to commit identity theft; attempt to obtain money under false pretenses; false statement to obtain credit; and a forgery-type charge called uttering. These counts altogether are punishable by up to 35 years in prison.

Marzloff could not be reached for comment by telephone Friday.

In Palm Beach County, Love-Robinson is charged with 14 felonies punishable by up to 90 years in state prison.

Wearing a white lab coat and stethoscope and holding fraudulent diplomas, he portrayed himself as a doctor in a West Palm Beach clinic and on house calls, authorities say.

Prosecutors say he also stole personal checks from a sick woman, among other offenses dating to spring 2015.

Love-Robinson has pleaded not guilty to 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; three counts of fraudulent use of personal identification information; one count of grand theft over $20,000; and one count of obtaining property in return for a worthless check, draft or debit card.

His former lawyer had informed Marx about the possibility of an insanity defense; Love-Robinson had been undergoing mental health treatments since his initial arrest last February.

In media interviews last year, he denied any wrongdoing, calling himself a doctor of homeopathic medicine and a health care practitioner specializing in natural treatments.

One of the allegations is that Love-Robinson stole personal checks from an 86-year-old West Palm Beach woman he was seeing about her severe intestinal pain. Prosecutors say Love-Robinson drained the woman’s checking account to make $34,504 in payments — for his credit cards and Nissan car loans.

Love-Robinson also is accused of writing a $1,500 bad check as a down payment to West Palm Nissan on May 23, 2015, and making $42,970 in fraudulent charges from the business account of a Boynton Beach addiction treatment center where he worked last year, court records show.

The payments included $28,067 toward a 2015 Nissan Rogue, an arrest report states.

A status hearing on the Palm Beach County cases is set for Feb. 28.