Man Faces Fourth Prison Term for Impersonating Doctor

A Los Angeles man previously imprisoned three times for posing as a physician pleaded guilty Thursday to committing the same crime.

Appearing before U.S. District Judge J. Spencer Letts in Los Angeles, Gerald Barnes admitted that shortly after he was released from prison in 1991 he presented false physician’s credentials to the first of several small medical clinics he worked at until he was arrested in April.

Barnes, 62, faces a maximum prison sentence of 29 years for mail fraud, dispensing a controlled substance and using a federal drug registration number issued to another. In custody since his arrest, he will be sentenced Sept. 12.

Described by his family and those who hired him as personable and charming, Barnes was trained in pharmacology but does not have a medical degree. He was first imprisoned in 1981 for involuntary manslaughter in connection with the death of a diabetic patient he treated in an Irvine clinic. He was returned to prison in 1984 and 1989 on theft charges stemming from his masquerading as a doctor.