Prison doesn’t stop US man from playing doctor

He had a stethoscope around his neck when he was arrested, Mrozek said. Barnes (67) was described as a model prisoner who has been imprisoned four times since 1981 for playing doctor. Barns was first exposed when he seriously misdiagnosed a diabetic patient, who later died at a clinic in Irvine, just outside of Los Angeles.

He was sentenced to three years for involuntary manslaughter. Released after 18 months, Barnes was again practicing medicine at two other clinics, but the receptionist who had worked at the Irvine clinic recognised him and tipped off the authorities. Barnes went back to prison for another three years and four months, and was released early for good behaviour. But by 1989 he was in jail again, this time after practicing at a clinic in San Bernardino County, East of Los Angeles.

After being released despite his criminal record, he got other jobs as a doctor — always using the name and medical registration number he later admitted lifting from a genuine Dr Gerald Barnes, Mrozek said. After federal authorities caught up with him again in 1996, he was sentenced to twelve-and-a-half years for fraud and sent to the institution near Bakersfield, California, 160 km north-west of here.

Barnes is not the first person to impersonate a physician. “What sets this guy apart is that he has been doing this for two decades,” Mrozek said. “In our case (in 1996), we presented evidence that he saw thousands and thousands of patients,” he said. “Ironically, many were FBI agents and other law enforcement officers getting physicals as part of their employment. Some people he worked with were completely fooled,” Mrozek added. “Others thought something was wrong, or that he was just incompetent.”

Barnes’ latest odyssey began on August 29, when he Left the prison camp with a bus ticket and orders to report to Marion, Illinois, by August 31, said Terry Craig of the Federal Correctional Institution at Taft. After he failed to appear in Marion, he was declared a fugitive and an arrest warrant was issued.

The Marshals received a tip, “did some good gumshoe detective work”, and found him at the North Hollywood clinic, said Mrozek. “The case of Barnes is unique,” said Candice Cohen of the California Medical Board, which regulates the state’s 108,000 licensed doctors. “I know of no other cases like this,” Cohen said. The “doctor” does have some medical training: in 1958, as Gerald Barnbaum, he earned a degree in pharmacy from the University of Illinois. But in 1976, he and 10 others were indicted for defrauding the Federal Medicaid programme. He was acquitted, but stripped of his pharmacist’s licence.

Afterwards he moved to California and changed his name to Barnes. “Needless to say, this man has psychological problems,” said psychiatrist Carole Lieberman. “There has to be some kind of identity disorder… that enables him to do it, especially after he keeps getting thrown in jail,” Lieberman said.

Losing his pharmacist’s licence could have been a motivation to don fake doctor’s robes, mental health experts agree. “He may feel (with his training) he’s as smart as doctors, that he knows as much, so why not be one?” says psychiatrist Walter Jacobson.