Florida
Fake teen doctor, now 25, receives prison sentence for new scam
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A serial grifter who gained national infamy as a teenager when he impersonated a doctor to defraud a patient is heading back to prison after pleading guilty to stealing more than $10,000 from his employer.
Malachi Love-Robinson, 25, received a sentence of over two years and four months last week after pleading guilty in Palm Beach County, Florida, to grand theft and organized scheme to defraud.
Court documents show that in 2020, Robinson was working as a salesperson for a company that connects shippers with trucking companies. Instead of having customers make payments to the company, Love-Robinson would have them send the money to accounts he controlled.
Love-Robinson first came to national attention in 2016 as an 18-year-old when he was arrested after opening The New Birth New Life Medical Center, identifying himself as “Dr. Love.”
He stole $30,000 from a patient in her 80s during house calls and an additional $20,000 from a doctor. He was arrested after he examined and prescribed treatment to an undercover police officer who was impersonating a patient.
Later that year while out on bail, Love-Robinson was arrested in Virginia after he tried to buy a Jaguar automobile with a stolen credit card.
He pleaded guilty in both cases and was released from prison in 2019.
Ohio
Sweeping criminal justice law changes OK’d by governor
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Sweeping criminal justice legislation signed Tuesday by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine will allow police to stop people solely for holding a cellphone while driving, with certain exceptions.
“This bill is about a lot more than pulling people over and handing out tickets,” DeWine said. “It’s about changing the culture around distracted driving, and normalizing the fact that distracted driving is just as dangerous as drunk driving.”
The proposal would prohibit drivers from “using, holding, or physically supporting” a cellphone, with some exceptions, such as if they are stopped at a red light, using a speakerphone function without holding the phone, or holding a phone to their ears for a call but not using texting or typing functions.
DeWine previously said the distracted-driving measure would spare many families from losing a loved one. The DeWines lost their daughter Becky to a car accident in 1993.
The legislation, which received bipartisan support in the House and Senate, makes a host of other changes to Ohio law. It will let inmates earn more time off prison sentences and make it easier to keep some criminal records out of the public eye. It will also decriminalize fentanyl test strips, make strangulation a separate offense, outlaw fertility fraud by doctors, and mandate age-appropriate education about child sexual abuse prevention in schools, among other changes.
State lawmakers also included a provision to throw out the statute of limitations for attempted aggravated murder. The bill’s sponsor has said that change is in response to a recent Ohio Supreme Court ruling that the timeline for charging defendants with this crime runs out six years after it was committed.
DeWine also has signed a separate bill that creates the felony offense of swatting — when someone knowingly reports a false emergency that prompts response by law enforcement, such as a kidnapping, school shooting or other violent crimes.
Puerto Rico
U.S. Virgin Islands fires attorney general in Epstein cases
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands has fired the attorney general of the U.S. territory who pursued various cases against disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, including a lengthy legal fight that resulted in a $105 million settlement.
The removal of Denise George comes just days after she filed a lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase in New York and accused the company of helping Epstein finance the illegal exploitation of women and children in the U.S. Virgin Islands and beyond.
Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. did not provide a reason for relieving George of her duties in a statement Sunday, saying only that she would be replaced by Assistant Attorney General Carol Thomas-Jacobs.
Governor spokesman Richard Motta did not return a message for comment, nor did executive assistant to the attorney general Jennifer Springette.
In the lawsuit filed against JPMorgan Chase on Dec. 27, the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands alleges the company “knowingly facilitated, sustained, and concealed the human trafficking network operated by Jeffrey Epstein from his home and base in the Virgin Islands, and financially benefited from this participation, directly or indirectly, by failing to comply with federal banking regulations.”
It also alleges that the company concealed wire and cash transactions.
“Human trafficking was the principal business of the accounts Epstein maintained at JP Morgan,” the lawsuit reads. “JP Morgan turned a blind eye to evidence of human trafficking over more than a decade because of Epstein’s own financial footprint, and because of the deals and clients that Epstein brought and promised to bring to the bank.”
A JPMorgan Chase spokeswoman declined comment in a message Tuesday to The Associated Press.
On Dec. 30, JPMorgan Chase asked that a federal judge throw out lawsuits filed by two unidentified women alleging that big banks should have seen evidence of Epstein’s sex trafficking. The bank also said it didn’t commit any negligent acts.
The lawsuit that George filed against JPMorgan Chase comes after Epstein’s estate reached the $105 million settlement with the U.S. Virgin Island’s government in late November.
The Virgin Islands Daily News, a local newspaper, reported that Epstein had made various donations to schools and organizations across the U.S. territory, and that the island’s former first lady was the office manager for one of his companies, Southern Trust. It also noted that Bryan, the governor, had granted Epstein’s company various hefty tax exemptions when he served as chairman of the Economic Development Commission.
In the previous lawsuit, George, the former attorney general, alleged that Southern Trust Company was used as a cover for Epstein’s illegal activities.
Epstein killed himself at a federal jail in New York in August 2019 while awaiting trial. He had pleaded not guilty to charges of sexually abusing dozens of girls, some as young as 14 years old.
