Man who posed as Westside fertility doctor is arrested
An Arizona man who allegedly stole the identity of a San Francisco physician and posed as a doctor running a West Los Angeles sperm bank has been arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting two men, authorities said.
Jeffrey Lynn Graybill, 40, of Phoenix is accused of pretending to be “Dr. Robert Richardson” and soliciting sperm donors for the nonexistent Fertility Clinic of West Los Angeles, said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.
Graybill was brought back to Los Angeles after being arrested Wednesday in Arizona, investigators said. He had moved from Marina del Rey to Phoenix in August.
Investigators believe that there may be more than two dozen other victims in California and Arizona.
Although he had no medical license, Graybill allegedly advertised himself as a physician through Internet listings on Craigslist and solicited potential clients, offering up to $4,000 monthly for sperm donations for “stem cell and other research.”
Graybill, a property manager, had been trained as an emergency medical technician and used leftover medical equipment such as a stethoscope and blood pressure monitor to convince men that he was a doctor, said Officer Ian Carbonell of the Los Angeles Police Department.
“He carried a black bag like a doctor,” Robison said.
Graybill arranged to meet the first victim at the man’s home June 10 and the second on June 20 at an apartment Graybill managed. He is accused of posing as a physician and fondling both men, Carbonell said.
After Graybill failed to pay the men, one of them filed a complaint with Los Angeles police in June, triggering the investigation, Carbonell said. He said Phoenix police also are investigating Graybill in connection with several similar assaults on men there.
Prosecutors have charged Graybill with 11 felonies, including practicing medicine without certification, identity theft, sexual penetration and sexual battery by fraud.
He is being held in custody in lieu of $590,000 bail and is due back in court Oct. 16, Robison said.
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molly.hennessy-fiske @latimes.com
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