The woman charged with impersonating a nurse at the Duluth hospice where Bobbi Kristina Brown died had a criminal history and had used false credentials to land prior nursing jobs, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has learned.
In 2013, Taiwo Sobamowo, 32, had used someone else’s nursing license number to apply for a job in Washington, D.C. But her scheme was thwarted when the facility’s background check uncovered convictions in Minnesota and a warrant for her arrest, according to court records obtained by the AJC.
The District of Columbia Board of Nursing issued an alert regarding Sobamowo,who is not licensed as a nurse. The alert was also posted on a database maintained by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing.
Despite all that, Sobamowo allegedly used the same trickery to land a nursing job at the Peachtree Christian Hospice in Duluth, at the time when Brown was a patient there. The daughter of the late singer Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown died in July. She was 22.
A police report obtained by the Associated Press showed no indication that Brown’s care was affected by Sobamowo.
North Carolina authorities arrested Sobamowo on Sunday in Raleigh, acting on warrants from the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office. She had also worked at a hospice in Cumming. A Forsyth County judge Thursday required a $24,000 cash-only bond.
She must also post a $2,420 bond on first-degree forgery and identity fraud charges in Forsyth County, according to Channel 2 Action News. She is also facing charges in Gwinnett County.
Sobamowo also worked at another facility for about a year in 2012 to 2013, according to the court records obtained by the AJC. The information was contained in a 2013 order to cease and desist the practice of nursing brought against her by the Washington D.C. Health Department.
A Superior Court judge in Washington also issued an arrest warrant against her for practicing nursing without a license.
After Thursday’s hearing, Sobamowo remained jailed in Forsyth County as details of her alleged schemes to practice nursing without a license continued to emerge.
Investigators are not sure exactly what contact Sobamowo had with Brown, who was initially hospitalized Jan. 31 and brought to the hospice facility in June. The Associated Press reported that Sobamowo had been in charge of caring for Brown.
Sobamowo was an employee of Homestead Hospice and Palliative Care, which provided contract nurses for Peachtree Christian Hospice. Homestead said it conducted a background check on Sobamowo and had no reason to believe that she was anything other than a good nurse with proper credentials.
Sobamowo was hired September 2014 and fired Aug. 5, when she couldn’t provide proof of a license, according to the Georgia Board of Nursing. Homestead Hospice said it notified the authorities when discrepancies emerged.
The 2013 criminal background check in Washington discovered she had been convicted of check forgery, falsely reporting child abuse with the intent to influence a custody hearing and other offenses.
In Missouri, she had been arrested for passing a bad check and, in Maryland, for theft, according to the order.
The order noted that a search of a national nursing data bank indicated that she was not licensed to practice nursing anywhere in the United States.
Staff writer Jennifer Brett contributed to this report.
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