Dozens of people turned to Dr. Julian Lopez-Garcia at a low point in their lives, seeking psychiatric help for disorders ranging from attention deficit hyperactivity to bipolar.
Dr. Lopez spent many hours in counseling sessions at Clarity Clinic on Chicago’s Near North Side, prescribing powerful psychiatric drugs for many of his patients.
But Dr. Lopez turned out to be an alias for Scott Redman, a man who not only didn’t hold a medical degree or license but may not have even graduated from high school, prosecutors said. Calling Redman a consummate con artist, federal prosecutors said he spent much of the last decade posing as a medical professional, but his months at the Clarity Clinic in late 2015 and early 2016 turned out to be his most brazen.
On Wednesday, Redman faced his day of reckoning in federal court as U.S. District Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan sentenced him to 13 years in prison for his betrayal of more than 100 patients who had put their trust in him at a particularly vulnerable time in their lives.
"The public needs to be protected from con artists," the judge said in handing down the sentence.
Prosecutors ridiculed Redman, 37, for displaying a "stunning lack of remorse," noting that his lawyer in a filing before the sentencing claimed Redman "did the best anyone could for his patients."
"He believes he deserves to be a doctor without the blood, sweat and tears required to be a doctor," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Katie Durick. "The defendant’s only skill is being a con man."
His patients weren’t the only victims — so, too, were Clarity Clinic and the real Dr. Lopez, prosecutors said.
At least 14 victims have sued Clarity Clinic for allowing Redman to provide mental health services without the proper education or license.
Prosecutors said Redman had for years posed as a mental health professional, moving to other parts of the country after being caught practicing without a license. He had been convicted and sentenced to supervision for impersonating a psychologist in Chicago’s south suburbs when he graduated to a psychiatrist while still on probation.
He took on the real doctor’s name and fabricated what prosecutors called "an entire universe of paperwork" — including fake diplomas, resumes and licenses — to give authenticity to his claim of being a psychiatrist.
He convinced Clarity Clinic that he was legitimate and began seeing patients at its facility in September 2015. Patients opened up to him about the most sensitive issues, prosecutors said. Armed with a Drug Enforcement Administration license he obtained under Dr. Lopez’s name, Redman prescribed dangerous drugs to more than 50 of his patients.
Chicago Tribune’s Marwa Eltagouri contributed.
gpratt@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @royalpratt
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