PHOENIX — A pair of recent criminal prosecutions continue to highlight how important it is for the public to verify health professionals’ licenses before seeking treatment.
In recent months, an impostor nurse pleaded guilty and an unlicensed psychologist was charged with multiple felonies.
Both defendants were the focus of separate ABC15 investigative reports.
IMPOSTORS: ABC15 investigates the underground world of unlicensed healthcare
Unlicensed Psychologist
Marilyn Wiley was arrested on two counts of Taking Identity of Another Person or Entity in May.
In advance of a news report, Wiley’s accused of creating multiple online personas to harass and threaten a victim who interviewed with ABC15 and filed an official complaint with the state psychology board, according to a Chandler police investigation.
“I'm not fixed. I'm not better,” said the victim, Reginal Jackson, in a previous interview. “There is constant suffering. And, she should not be practicing.”
In an ABC15 report in 2020, Jackson claimed he was duped into believing Wiley was licensed and legitimate. He provided bills showing he had dozens of appointments with Wiley from late 2017 through mid-2019.
Wiley has applied for licensure with the state board multiple times. But she failed to pass the competency exam at least twice, according to board officials and records.
On LinkedIn.com, Wiley claimed to have a Ph.D. from Walden University, an online for-profit college, and says she belonged to both the Arizona and American Psychological Associations. Both organizations told ABC15 she was not a member.
Wiley was hired by Vibrant Health Care as a “psychology associate,” a position designed for an unlicensed person to obtain practice hours under the supervision of a psychologist.
But in social media photos, Wiley had photos of herself holding a stethoscope and wearing a white coat with “clinical psychologist” stitched on the front. In Arizona, it’s illegal to call yourself a “psychologist” without a license or advertise yourself with the term “psychology.”
Wiley also used the fake identities to try to contact ABC15, records show.
An account linked to one of Wiley’s relatives also sent ABC15 Chief Investigative Reporter Dave Biscobing a threatening message on Facebook.
The message dated July 30, 2021 stated: Ayy cracka …idk what yo problem is but you gone find yo self in A Hearst I’m pretty sho you don’t wanna go thur f****t a** boy. Your wife is beautiful by tha way.
Wiley has a preliminary hearing scheduled for August 5, 2022.
Impostor Nurse
Ondranqiue Walls pleaded guilty to multiple felony charges after she opened a medspa and performed injections on women using a real nurse’s identity.
As part of a plea deal, Walls was sentenced in March and avoided jail and prison time, court records show.
A judge placed her on supervised probation for three years.
In 2018, ABC15 caught the impostor nurse during an undercover appointment and interviewed multiple victims, including the nurse whose identity was stolen.
After the station’s reporting, Scottsdale Police Department opened an investigation and the Arizona State Board of Nursing officially designated Walls as an impostor on its website.
Walls was indicted by a grand jury a year later in March 2019, records show.
Scottsdale police arrested Walls on December 12th, 2019 after assigning officers to locate and surveil her. Walls was taken into custody following a traffic stop near her home.
In November 2019, ABC15 aired a follow-up report about Walls that revealed how she had opened another medspa and had not been arrested after more than a year and a half.
It’s not clear if Ondranique Walls was again treating patients herself in the new Phoenix business. But multiple nurses who unsuspectingly applied to work at Walls's medspa contacted ABC15 worried that she will steal their identities and again treat patients.
At the time, Walls sent ABC15 an email that stated, “You need to leave me alone with this bullsh**!” and to “F*** OFF! WITH ALL YOUR FAKE NEWS! TRY SOMEONE ELSE CUZ I’M NOT HER!”
Contact ABC15 Chief Investigator Dave Biscobing at dave@abc15.com.
