What does this Florida teenager advertising his medical services while sporting a lab coat and stethoscope not have? A medical degree.

Malachi A. Love-Robinson, an 18-year-old, even had his own medical office in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Officials arrested Love-Robinson Tuesday after the Palm Beach Narcotics Task Force (PBNTF) and the Florida Department of Health investigated complaints that the “doctor” was practicing medicine without a license, according to a statement released by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.

Just because you saw a season of Grey’s Anatomy doesn’t mean you could practice medicine. https://t.co/tw8QUXjtsj pic.twitter.com/dCBZX8CYCU

— PBSO (@PBCountySheriff) February 16, 2016

The sheriff’s office also said that Love-Robinson had been investigated previously and was cited by the Department of Health for practicing medicine without a license this past October. According to Brad Dalton, the spokesman for the Florida Department of Health, Love-Robinson was worked at New Birth New Life, a treatment office specializing in addiction recovery, in Boynton Beach, Fla. Practicing medicine without a license is considered a third-degree felony in Florida.

The police were apparently tipped off by a member of the public who told the authorities that “a person who was portraying himself as a 25-year-old doctor was actually an 18-year-old,” Brad Dalton told the New York Times. According to his profile on HealthGrades.com, which has since been taken down, he was listed as a 25-year-old.

Love-Robinson posted bail on Wednesday and on Thursday he told ABC News, “I’m not portraying as an M.D. I never said I’ve gone to school to be an M.D.” He also claims that he has a Ph.D., but would not say where it is from or what field it is in.

The statement from the sheriff’s office says that Love-Robinson “performed a physical exam on an undercover agent and offered medical advice.” The point in time when Love-Robinson crossed the line to provide medical care and advice was when police were able to intervene, Dalton told CNN.

According to New Birth New Life’s website, Love-Robinson is listed as having not only a Ph.D. but also two certifications: HHP-C, which is a holistic health practitioner certification, and AMP-C, which is unclear.

There are two other employees listed, an operations director and a program director. The program director, Sandra J. White, is titled “Dr.,” but it is unclear if that title stems from the honorary doctorate of divinity that she received according to her bio on the NBNL website, or if from an educational institution.

The bio for Michelle L. Newsome, the operations director, says, “[Newsome] is looking forward to many years here at NBNL Medical Center and hopes to enjoy each and every one of them.”

Love-Robinson was also accused of forging and cashing stolen checks from an 86-year-old woman in January and was charged with Grand Theft, Uttering a Forgery, and Naturopath without a License, according to an update posted to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page.

The elderly women reportedly filed a forgery and fraud report after she was notified that her bank account had no money in it. “The victim obtained copies of her checks and learned that three had been forged and cashed by Dr. Love-Robinson without her consent or knowledge,” the post said.

Love-Robinson disagrees with the police and is unhappy that he was forced to close down his practice following the accusations. “I’m not trying to hurt people,” he told the New York Times. “I’m just a young black guy who opened up a practice who is trying to do some good in the community. If that is a negative thing, we have a lot more work to do in the community than to single out me.”

Julia Bryant

Julia Bryant is an Editorial Senior Fellow at Law Street from Howard County, Maryland. She is a junior at the University of Maryland, College Park, pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Economics. You can contact Julia at JBryant@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Florida Teen Still Not a Doctor, But Still Pretending appeared first on Law Street.

Hey y’all!

I am an avid social media user. I love all things social media but I have yet to cross the line into obsessively taking selfies and sending them off to anyone, let alone posting them all over the Internet. In today’s world it is almost impossible to find someone who has not taken one selfie and sent it to at least one other person. But one teen not only crossed the line in selfie etiquette, he showed how much he doesn’t value life.

Maxwell Morton, 16, faces first-degree murder charges, in addition to charges of criminal homicide and possession of a weapon by a minor, after shooting Ryan Mangan, who was also 16, last Wednesday.

A funeral was held for Mangan on Monday in a small town just outside of Pittsburgh.

Morton was dumb enough to photograph what he had done and then used the popular social media app SnapChat to send it to another boy. SnapChat allows the user to send a multi-media message that disappears within a few seconds once the recipient opens it. Thankfully the young man that Morton sent the image to was smart enough to save the image, show his mom, and then contact the police.

Morton also had taken a photo of himself with the 9 mm pistol that was used in the shooting, which was later found on the camera roll on his phone.

The amount of disregard for human life that Morton has is just sickening, and the fact that more and more social media is used for this kind of thing makes me want to delete all my apps and go back to an old school flip phone that would only allow you to make calls or send text messages..

Morton is being charged as an adult and could face up to life in prison. Life in prison. I think he deserves the death penalty. Something that the state of Pennsylvania does in fact still have in effect. Pennsylvania ranks 26 in executions for the past five years.

I have to wonder where this kids parents were, why he wanted to kill Mangan and where did he get the gun? Only time will tell.

Allison Dawson

Allison Dawson was born in Germany and raised in Mississippi and Texas. A graduate of Texas Tech University and Arizona State University, she’s currently dedicating her life to studying for the LSAT. Twitter junkie. Conservative. Get in touch with Allison at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Teen Murder Suspect Takes Selfie With Victim appeared first on Law Street.

Hey y’all!

Remember when Neil Patrick Harris played Doogie Howser, M.D in the early 90s? A teenager who was so brilliant that he had gone through medical school and was practicing medicine by age 14, but also went through two occurrences of pediatric cancer.

Recently a 17-year-old boy in Florida posed as a doctor for about a month without anyone even noticing. According to reports, a patient at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach informed staff that a juvenile was dressed in a lab coat and was inside an OB/GYN exam room. The young man was not in the exam room alone, he was with a patient and another doctor. My first question is why did this other doctor allow him in the room? Shouldn’t the real doctor know the other doctors in the department? If I were that patient I would feel really violated and consider suing the hospital.

I’ve spent my fair share of time with doctors and whenever one has someone tag along at an appointment, he introduces me and explains why the other doctor is in the room with us. It’s usually an intern or a new doctor to the department who is being trained to work with patients. This was not one of those instances, this was no Doogie Howser!

The mother of the young man posing as a doctor states that her son is under the care of a doctor but is not taking his medication; his illness is undisclosed.

Police in West Palm Beach have opted not to charge the young man with anything. Not much information can be released due to the boy’s age and I am sure there is a great reason for not charging him but I would certainly have an issue with that hospital.

What’s even more interesting is that another 17 year old, Matthew Scheidt, was charged and found guilty of impersonating a physician’s assistant and practicing medicine without a license back in 2012, also in Florida. That teen was convicted and faces up to 25 years in prison.

In both situations the teenage boys were said to have mental illness, so why did one get off scot-free and the other didn’t?

Allison Dawson

Allison Dawson was born in Germany and raised in Mississippi and Texas. A graduate of Texas Tech University and Arizona State University, she’s currently dedicating her life to studying for the LSAT. Twitter junkie. Conservative. Get in touch with Allison at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Florida Teen Who Pretended to Be a Doctor Won’t Face Charges appeared first on Law Street.

Hey y’all!

Earlier this week a 15-year-old girl and her 11-year-old sister were involved in a shooting at their rural Florida home. The older girl fatally shot her brother while he slept.

My first question when reading about this was, where are the parents? I bet you are wondering, too. Well the father is a truck driver who had to work from Sunday until Tuesday. That makes sense, so then where was the mother? She apparently went with her husband, leaving their 16-year-old son in charge of the household. I’m sorry, that doesn’t sound like good parenting to begin with. I would not let my children be supervised by my 16-year-old son, I would have a babysitter come or maybe only one parent should’ve gone. Perhaps the one with the job? I don’t see why the mom felt the need to leave her children. Not only did these parents decide to leave their son in charge of these girls, but also their three-year-old daughter. That’s a lot of responsibility for a teenager, and not the best idea on the parents’ part.

Reports claim that the boy locked his 15-year-old sister in her room and then fell asleep. The girl talked her 11-year-old sister into letting her out as he slept. Once freed from her room she headed into her parents’ bedroom where she knew they kept a gun; however, this young girl did not just walk through the door into the parents’ bedroom, oh no, she had to go to the outside of the house with a knife and remove the air conditioning unit that was installed in the bedroom window in order to get in, as they apparently had locked their bedroom door before they left.

The girl headed straight to the location where her parents kept their pistol, loaded it, and went into the room where her brother slept, pulling the trigger. The scary part is that the 15 year old knew what she was doing and told her 11-year-old sister to hide in a closet before she killed their brother.  After shooting her brother she buried her head in a pillow before returning to the living room to find her three-year-old sister trying to wake up her dead brother. Upon seeing this, the two older girls fled the house, leaving the three year old to fend for herself next to their dead brother. It was only after the 11 year old called a friend for a ride that police were able to find the girls.

The parents were notified and have admitted to locking up the 15 year old for up to 20 consecutive days in her bedroom for “misbehaving.” Through police reports and interviews it has also been discovered that the 15 year old had a single blanket and a bucket to use the bathroom when she was locked up.

Things make a bit more sense when you realize how neglectful and irresponsible the parents were. It’s hard to know what possibly happened to lead to being locked in the bedroom. Did the brother beat his sister before locking her in her bedroom? She could have just snapped and felt like she needed to protect herself and her siblings. Although I understand that, I feel like it was also premeditated. She knew where the gun was located, that it needed to be loaded, and to protect her little sister from seeing what was about to happen.

The 15- and 11-year-old girls are being held at a juvenile detention center while a prosecutor decides whether they should be tried as adults or not. The parents are also facing charges of child neglect and failing to supervise.

Allison Dawson

Allison Dawson was born in Germany and raised in Mississippi and Texas. A graduate of Texas Tech University and Arizona State University, she’s currently dedicating her life to studying for the LSAT. Twitter junkie. Conservative. Get in touch with Allison at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Young Florida Sisters Held in Fatal Shooting of Older Brother appeared first on Law Street.