Feb. 13--A man who pleaded guilty last year to posing as a psychologist in the south suburbs has continued seeing patients, including a 9-year-old, federal prosecutors allege.
Using an identity stolen from a licensed physician, Scott Curtis Redman, 36, formerly of Hammond, Ind., prescribed 71 prescriptions to 44 individuals from December to the end of January, the U.S. attorney's office said.
The youngest patient Redman issued a prescription for was a 9-year-old who received a 30-day supply of Vyvanse, a drug typically used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, prosecutors said.
In November, Redman used a physician's name, medical license number and controlled substance license number to run a clinic that advertised mental health services on the Near North Side of Chicago, prosecutors said.
The clinic's website features a picture of Redman using the real doctor's name and advertises psychiatric treatment for young children, adults and adolescents, prosecutors said.
Earlier this month, an investigator with the Drug Enforcement Administration met with the physician whose identity was stolen after a University of Connecticut police officer called the physician to say someone had submitted a fraudulent University of Connecticut diploma in the physician's name to the Blue Cross Blue Shield credentialing department.
Federal investigators also learned that Redman had been arrested in Oak Forest and Oak Lawn earlier this month and charged with a combined 24 counts of pretending to be a psychologist in Cook County, prosecutors said.
This week, the U.S. attorney's office charged Redman with intentionally using a fictitious registration number in the name of another person to distribute and dispense a controlled substance.
The charge is punishable by up to four years in prison, prosecutors said.
In October, Redman pleaded guilty in Cook County to a single count of misdemeanor practicing psychological therapy without a license. His victim in that case, Kathy Baran, said she felt Redman got off with a "little slap."
Last year, Baran told the Daily Southtown that she trusted Redman with her secrets. And when she found out the man she was opening up to wasn't a psychologist, Baran said she felt "crushed," "mortified" and "violated."
"I want him put away," Baran said when informed of the new charges.
The Daily Southtown reported extensively on Redman last year after he came under scrutiny by state regulators and was arrested in South Holland.
Redman claimed to hold a doctorate in counseling psychology from a school that denied giving him any degree, and records released by the state showed he had been denied repeatedly a clinical psychologist license in Illinois.
Redman previously said he holds a doctorate in counseling psychology from Walden University, a Minneapolis for-profit college. But the school said it had no record of his enrolling or receiving a degree.
Redman has been denied a clinical psychologist license on at least three occasions -- in May 2012, October 2012 and February 2013, records show.
Redman also was involved in a licensing dispute in Florida that parallels his problems in Illinois. In 2010, Florida officials determined he had falsely claimed to have received a graduate degree from Kaplan University, records show.
The Southtown confronted him last spring, when Redman was still operating a clinic in Oak Lawn, and he offered to pull his latest posting from Psychology Today if a reporter agreed not to write about his practice.
"My preference is that you not even pursue this story at all," Redman said. "I'd rather it just go away."
gpratt@tribpub.com
