Florida teen arrested for impersonating doctor

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida -- A Florida teenager was arrested for pretending to be a doctor in his own clinic and treating patients there.

Malachi Love-Robinson, 18, was arrested by West Palm Beach police officers, a culmination of a recent investigation from the Florida Department of Health. He is accused of practicing medicine without a license, and investigators say he performed an exam on a female undercover officer.

Love-Robinson calls himself a certified naturopathic doctor and opened his clinic in January. He lists many specialties including psychology, urgent care and gynecology. According to his Facebook page and website, he also offers holistic care and family planning counseling at the New Birth Life medical center. Further online profiles list specialties including counseling, marriage and family therapy, hospital administration. His resume on Indeed.com says he is a former Chief resident Physician at Southwest College of Neuropathic Medicine with years of wide-ranging experience.

It's surprising, considering Love-Robinson's age and his refusal to confirm from where or when he graduated high school.

Family members say they and former co-workers called the Florida Health Department and their local ABC station, WPBF-TV, worried that Love-Robinson was impersonating a doctor and "may injure someone or their children."

"It's just jealousy," Love-Robinson told WPBF. "Any time anybody has something to say about somebody, it's because they're successful."

Family members dispute that, saying he has a history.

Last year, the story of a 17-year-old caught in a pregnant woman's room in St. Mary's Medical Center went viral. According to a police report, the teen - who was dressed in a St. Mary's lab coat and wearing a stethoscope and face mask, roaming the halls and entering patients' rooms - told police he'd been a doctor for years, and that his family would vouch for him. Love-Robinson admits to being that teen.

Police say his mother told him he suffered from an undisclosed illness and refused to take his medication.

St. Mary's denied he'd ever come into contact with patients, but would not turn surveillance video over to police and declined to press charges.

At the end of 2015, the Florida Department of Health issued a Cease and Desist Order against Love-Robinson for "leading the public to believe he was a licensed medical doctor, without holding an active license." Love-Robinson says he is not an MD, but an "N.D.," or neuropathic doctor. Florida doesn't license NDs, and anyone can call themselves that.

Love-Robinson denies that he is portraying himself as a doctor, and says he was shadowing physicians at St. Mary's hospital last year. He also says he will continue on his quest to become a doctor.