Florida’s Teen ‘Dr. Love’ Faces New Rap As A Grown-Up

A Florida man who made national headlines after posing as “Dr. Love” and running a clinic as a teenager is back behind bars—this time for allegedly stealing thousands from his employer. The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said Malachi Love-Robinson, 23, was arrested and charged with fraud and grand theft on Thursday. Police say Love-Robinson stole almost $10,000 from a freight company he worked for in Delray Beach, by telling clients to send money to his own account instead of the firm. According to an arrest report first obtained by the Sun-Sentinel, Love-Robinson was a contract employee at United States Freight in March when he allegedly diverted payments from customers into his personal account. When his boss discovered the scheme, Love-Robinson allegedly begged for forgiveness, telling his employer he “can’t say how truly sorry he is.” ----

---- “I don’t want to go back to jail,” Love-Robinson texted the owner of United States Freight after he was discovered, according to the arrest report. He reportedly added that he had “fucked himself” and was doing everything he could “to make it right.” Love-Robinson was released hours after his arrest on a $1,000 bond for each charge. It is not immediately clear if he has an attorney. The West Palm Beach native made national headlines in 2016 after investigators discovered the then-18-year-old was illegally posing as a doctor and running the “New Birth New Life Alternative Medicine and Urgent Care Clinic” without a license. Authorities say he misled patients into believing he was a licensed medical doctor for the “high-quality Holistic and Alternative Medical care” facility. The teenager was also accused and later convicted of stealing more than $34,000 from an 86-year-old patient during several house calls to treat her intestinal pain. Love-Robinson has maintained he never intended to pose as a medical doctor—even though he had several fraudulent diplomas, a white doctor’s lab coat, and a real stethoscope. ----

---- In a stunning February 2016 ABC News interview, Love-Robinson even claimed he thought his “job as a good citizen” was to help people as a naturopath. He denied diagnosing and treating patients, even though his initial arrest came after performing an exam on an undercover officer. “I have been studying this particular field for a while,” he said, shortly before storming out of the interview after being asked if he was a “fraud.” “It may not have been eight, nine, 10 years. It has been long enough to, I would say, justify what I do.” While out on bond and awaiting trial in Palm Beach County, he was arrested again in September 2016 in Virginia after allegedly trying to buy a Jaguar with an older woman’s personal information. He was convicted in 2017 and served a year in a Virginia jail, then was extradited to face trial in South Florida. A year later, Love-Robinson struck a deal with Palm Beach County prosecutors, pleading guilty to practicing naturopathy without a license and grand theft in exchange for a three-year sentence. He was released from prison in September 2019 after 21 months.