Which laws were violated here? Consequences?

Factual Questions
1

So here’s the background story:

Months ago, my employer hired a new staff member whom we’ll call J. We heard all sorts of wonderful things about J, including that he was multilingual, a world traveller, and a doctor. Not just any kind of doctor; a neurosurgeon from a prestigious medical school nearby who had decided to give up medicine for a new career.

He gets here, and it turns out he’s 24 years old :dubious: .

The stories he told were essentially unbelievable, and lasted until our administation received a call from the French consulate. They had accidentally received a letter addressed to our office (it arrived by the return address), about J, on their own letterhead. It turns out that no one at the consulate wrote the letter and it was an obvious (to them) forgery. J quits soon afterward and leaves.

My questions are:
Is it illegal to impersonate an M.D.?
(As a side note, AFAIK he did not practice medicine, but a part of the job requirement does include medical training and at some point he would have had to provide 1st aid or more in the course of his duties… I don’t know if he had current 1st aid certification - it would seem to be redundant to ask an M.D. for his 1st aid cert.)

Is it illegal to forge a letter?

What are the consequences for these acts?

I am only asking to satisfy my curiousity, since no criminal action or charges have been brought.

2

In Texas (and I assume most or all other states), impersonating a doctor is a felony if it causes someone either physical or financial harm. I don’t know if your man’s conduct would have gone far enough to qualify, but it sounds like if he didn’t cross the line, he walked right up to it.

3

IANAL etc. The California code on forgery:

So I would say that creating a letter on the stationery of the French consulate would be a forgery as defined by the code.

4

Name wasn’t Demara or Abagnale by any chance, was it?

5

If it’s a felony in Texas, it’s a felony anywhere in the U.S.

6

I would never assume that any M.D., regardless of specialty, was qualified to perform first aid.

7

For future reference, it’s not only NOT redundant, it’s often legally REQUIRED.

The stuff they teach in medical school may give us a better insight into first aid, but I recall that many of my classmates, even talented ones, were clueless about the practical details until they took the various certifications. There is definite value in an annual refresher, however insultingly simplistic it may feel when I’m doing it

I’d been certified in various levels of first aid for 15 years (starting with Boy Scout Advanced First Aid, Red Cross Life Guard training, etc. as a child, and ) when I started medical school, near the end of my first semester, a lady collapsed in a restaurant, and my brain, filled to exhaustion with anatomy, physiology and biochemistry, drew a complete blank on first aid I’d knowm most of my life.

My ex, who I’d been helping with a basic EMT course at the time, was completely disgusted with me. I can’t blame her: I’d been just as disgusted with my father, a nonpracticing academic physician, who couldn’t do basic first aid whenever I was injured – In one incident, I might have bled to death, if the girl next door hadn’t gone to get her father. He was a telephone company exec who’d risen from lineman after high school, and remembered his first aid better than my dad.

I can tell you this: hospitals demand that their house officers (residents) have current certs at all times. You can get in trouble if you intervene when you’re not. I’ve seen MANY a senior attending stand back and let a nurse or respiratory tech with current certification handle a code, until a resident arrives.

In fact, I’ll be recertifying in ACLS (Advanced Cardiac Life Support or "What to do before and after you yell “Clear!”) and whatnot this weekend. We have a flurry of courses the first week of July each year, when the new interns come in. Sadly, I know from past experience that few of my colleagues will be there.

8

Seems to me that your employer should file charges against this person. Anyone who goes around impersonating a doctor to get a job is (a) a con artist and thus to be avoided and (b) possibly going to cause injury to someone down the line. Catching the person would do us all a great service.

9

How was the interview for J conducted, over the phone? Did your employer not check his bona fides before he offered him the job?

10

I imagine if he is collevting a paycheck in the guise of a doctor, he is committing fraud. And if your local statutes require a showing of “financial or physical harm”, a paycheck would certainly qualify for that.

11

Huh? :dubious: :confused:

12

I think the applicant’s forgery of the letter would constitute mail fraud, which is a federal offense. Also, I think the French consulate could press charges against him whether or not the company wanted to, since it was their letterhead he forged.

13

Back when I was taking EMT training, an instructor described a scenario where someone comes up to you at an accident scene, and says “I’m a doctor, what can I do?”. The response?

“Take these three flares, and put one every hundred yards down the road. When you get to the end, keep walking.”

14

Thanks all for the responses. I appreciate your help, especially those who additionally let me know that doctors still need to prove they’re trained in 1st aid. :slight_smile:

It seems he really was well over the line in terms of criminal law.

Shockingly, he was interviewed in person, and his references were checked! One of the folks here who does the checking told me that people who you call for references can tell you very little about a person, for fear of being sued. I can only assume that his references were from a more recent job and not from the medical school (one of the things references can tell you is whether the person ever worked/studied there, and when).

The French have apparently decided not to persue the matter; I (really awkwardly) ran into him at a conference after he left.

He’s definitely something of a con man, but he was pretty careless about his stories being contradictory to obvious facts or other stories. I suspect he may have been something of a pathological liar, if there is such a thing.

15

Originally Posted by Ethilrist
If it’s a felony in Texas, it’s a felony anywhere in the U.S.

To which DrDeth replied: Huh?
If I may intervene, I’m guessing that what Ethilrish meant was that if this conduct was considered a felony in Texas that therefore it is extremely likely that the other 49 US States have similar criminal statutes on their books which make that conduct a felony there too.