‘Doctor’s’ Operation on Critical List : He’s Accused of Running Phony Practice in Albuquerque

One-time friends say the man they knew as Dr. Michael J. Kelley told them he came here for a quieter life, a limited medical practice and a part-time teaching job at the University of New Mexico medical school.

Kelley seemed to have a physician’s demeanor and plenty of medical knowledge. He wore a white lab coat embroidered with his name and told stories about teaching.

But it turned out that nobody at the university had ever heard of him and that the New Mexico Medical Examiner’s Board had no record of a Michael J. Kelley being licensed to practice medicine.

Now his former friends remember inconsistencies in his story that they once overlooked. They are embarrassed and angry that they were taken in by a man they describe as confident, extroverted, entertaining and smart.

Past Criminal Record

They are troubled by his criminal past and the story of his relationship with a teen-age boy who died.

And they’re relieved that one acquaintance “out-conned the con,” as an investigator put it, and helped bring about his arrest.

A Bernalillo County grand jury in April returned a 34-count indictment charging him with practicing medicine without a license in Albuquerque in 1986 and 1987.

“He was so successful at convincing very well-educated people that he’s something he’s not,” said Bill Copeland, the district attorney’s investigator who handled the case. “Part of his motive was he loved the high life style. He enjoyed status, enjoyed the high-roller-type life style.”

Kelley, whose real name is Gerald Thomas Lampkins, was arrested in Tempe, Ariz., in February and is being held for trial in the Bernalillo County Detention Center in lieu of $250,000 cash bond.

Lampkins, who has given his age as 51, 54 and 56, surfaced in Albuquerque early in 1986, allegedly posing as a wealthy endocrinologist and surgeon with a heart ailment that had forced him to give up a busy and prosperous practice in New York.

The part about heart problems may be true. Copeland said that “Dr. Kelley” issued cardiac medication to himself.

Prescriptions Alleged

He allegedly prescribed ibuprofen, an anti-inflammatory medicine, for one woman who complained of back pain. For another friend he allegedly prescribed an antibiotic after she suffered a negative reaction to a flu shot. He is not accused of performing examinations or surgery, but of unlawfully prescribing drugs.

His lawyer, public defender Richard Knowles, would not allow his client to be interviewed. He said: “I just don’t like the idea of going to trial with newspaper clippings.”

Authorities say that Lampkins’ criminal record dates back to the early 1950s, with convictions ranging from kidnaping to making false statements. He served time at the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kan., for violating the Selective Service Act and for other offenses in state and county prisons in Missouri and California.

Then there is the story of his relationship with 18-year-old Ronnie Teunis.

Teunis lived with Lampkins in an opulent Oakland, Calif., apartment, and died in a motorcycle accident two weeks after they took out a $100,000 life insurance policy on each other in November, 1982. The district attorney’s office in Oakland has closed the case, according to investigator Nicole Lee, but it’s not closed as far as Allstate Life Insurance Co. is concerned.

Death Benefit Disputed

Allstate paid a benefit of $203,365, including interest and payment on a double-indemnity clause, and now is trying to recover the money plus $600,000 in punitive damages. Allstate contends that Lampkins misrepresented himself as Teunis’ stepfather.

A newspaper legal notice of the insurance company’s suit added to a vague uneasiness about Kelley among his Albuquerque friends.

“Things would happen to sow a seed inside you, but then, nothing would happen for a while,” said one woman whose family regularly invited Kelley to dinner and parties.

A small, balding man described by friends as slightly effeminate and given to gesturing dramatically when he talked, Kelley was regarded as good company, as highly intelligent, schooled in the arts and well-traveled. He drove a Mercedes-Benz and carried a business card identifying him as a Ph.D. as well as a medical doctor.

The woman and her husband, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Kelley avoided doctors to whom they tried to introduce him socially and gave inconsistent accounts of his marital status--divorced in one version, widowed in another.

Conflicting Stories

He wept when he told about the motorcycle accident that killed Ronnie, they said, but he said it happened in New York, not California. He told them the boy was an underprivileged youth his family had taken in.

Every time Kelley piqued the couple’s suspicions, the wife said, he would offer a gift or a compliment--”something nice to overcome the feelings I had.”

The legal notice was too much, however. The couple discussed their suspicion with a friend, who mentioned it to Cheryl Boll, a Placitas, N. M., kennel owner who had befriended Kelley through their mutual interest in dogs.

“I think several people began snapping to this person who was not who he said he was, but (Boll) pegged him as a phony and a manipulator. Eventually, she out-conned the con guy,” Copeland, the prosecutor’s investigator, said.