The teenager who made national headlines early this year after police say he posed as a medical doctor has added to his legal woes after being arrested Friday afternoon in Virginia.
Malachi Love-Robinson, 19, tried buying a $26,000 Lexus from a used car dealership in Stafford, Virginia, using a fraudulent credit card, said Josephina Morris, finance director of the dealership. He was cuffed and led out by Stafford County sheriff's deputies.
"Something was very odd about him, and one of us just decided to look him up," Morris said. He initially asked about a buying a Jaguar, but the dealership didn't have any.
Love-Robinson, who awaits trial in Palm Beach County on charges of impersonating a doctor and larceny, used his real name in a car application, and was accompanied by an elderly woman he identified as his mother, Morris said.
He later told employees the woman was his aunt, then said godmother, which drew suspicion, Morris said. He told employees he was a medical doctor and vice president of a practice in South Florida.
"Police questioned him for nearly an hour before he was taken away," Morris said.
Love-Robinson faces charges of making false statements to obtain credit, obtaining money by false pretenses and identity fraud, the Stafford County Sheriff's Office told The Free Lance Star in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He was still being held on Saturday.
The elderly woman who accompanied Love-Robinson seemed confused and told deputies she never gave the teen permission to use her as a co-signer for the car. A credit check revealed her credit card was used to purchase two iPads and a cellphone, later seized from Love-Robinson, according to The Free Lance Star.
Love-Robinson was arrested in Palm Beach County in late February after police alleged that he opened a medical practice in West Palm Beach and examined patients — including an undercover officer — without a license. Before that, he had been accused of roaming the halls of St. Mary's Medical Center in a white lab coat and identifying himself as a doctor.
He was released from the Palm Beach County Jail on bail, with a stipulation of his release being that he must notify the court should he leave the state. It's unclear whether Love-Robinson reported his trip to Virginia.
Love-Robinson is scheduled to be arraigned in November.
He was previously represented by Leonard Feuer, a West Palm Beach attorney who offered to represent the teen free of charge. Feuer withdrew from the case due to an undisclosed "ethical issue" two weeks ago, just after new charges were filed against Love-Robinson.
The new charges of grand theft and organized scheme to defraud stem from an investigation by the Boynton Beach Police Department, which found that Love-Robinson had used a local psychologist's bank account to make payments toward his car and other bills in 2015, according to an arrest report obtained by The Post Saturday.
In total, Love-Robinson took $42,970.93 from the bank account, police say.
The additional charges had nothing to do with Feuer's request to step down, Feuer told The Palm Beach Post. Love-Robinson will be represented by a court-appointed public defender.
The new attorney will mark the third that has represented Love-Robinson since his initial arrest in February. He was originally represented by defense attorney Andrew Stine, who withdrew from the case in June after he said the two had "irreconcilable differences."
Love-Robinson turned down a plea deal earlier this year that would have sent him to prison for three years. He faces up to eight years in prison on the charge of impersonating a medical doctor.
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