A convicted identity thief who admitted to posing as a nurse in Virginia nearly a decade ago is accused of impersonating nurses in at least two hospitals in Southern California this year, authorities said.
Amanda Porter, 44, was arrested Nov. 7 in connection with a nursing job she obtained at a medical center in Burbank using the identity of a registered nurse who lived out of state, the city’s police department said in a statement Thursday.
Porter, who does not have a nursing license, was charged with identity theft, false impersonation and grand theft, the department said. Jail records show she is being held without bail.
Her lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
Prior to her arrest in that case, the department said, Porter was in custody over similar allegations linked to a hospital in nearby Santa Clarita, California.
It wasn’t immediately clear what charges Porter may face in that case. Jail records show the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office was the arresting agency. The department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Virginia case
At the time of Porter’s Nov. 7 arrest, she was on probation for a separate federal fraud case in Virginia, the Burbank police statement said. In a statement of facts in the federal case that Porter acknowledged as accurate, she admitted stealing the identity of a registered nurse in New York in 2015 and using it to get a job as a supervisor at a nursing home near Norfolk.
Porter, who is identified in the case as Amanda Porter-Eley, had the position for five months before she was fired in March 2016, the document says.
Using the nurse’s name, date of birth and Social Security number, Porter admitted opening bank accounts and obtaining loans totaling more than $100,000 that she used to buy a Mercedes Benz, diamond bracelets, a Ford Mustang for her son and other items, according to the document.
She also tried to obtain a $176,000 home loan but was denied, the documents states.
Porter was arrested in September 2016 at a Navy credit union while trying to open an account using another stolen Social Security number, according to the document. While being taken into custody, she told the arresting officer that “she steals money because it gives her a high like a drug,” the document states, adding: “she wants to give it back after stealing it, but spends it instead.”
Porter was indicted on multiple counts of bank and wire fraud, using a false Social Security number and aggravated identity theft. She pleaded guilty to two of the counts and was sentenced to nine years in prison.
She was no longer in federal custody as of March 13, 2024, prison records show. The prosecutor in that case could not immediately be reached for comment, and her lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Caring for dozens of patients
In Burbank, Porter allegedly applied for a job at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center this year and oversaw roughly 60 patients between April 8 and May 8, according to police. Hospital officials discovered she was impersonating an out-of-state nurse and fired her, the department said.
After determining Porter’s credentials were falsified, the officials promptly notified state and local authorities and the patients whom she cared for, the hospital said in a separate statement.
During her first five shifts at the hospital, she was under the supervision of a training nurse, the facility said.
Several months later and roughly 25 miles away, at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital in Santa Clarita, officials learned in October that “an employee” had falsified documents to get a job, the hospital said in a statement.
“Once discovered, we took immediate and appropriate action, including terminating her employment and reporting to regulatory and law enforcement authorities,” the hospital said.
The hospital added that Porter, who is not named in the hospital’s statement, was under the supervision of a nurse and there was no indication of compromised care.
The Burbank police said investigators believe Porter may have committed similar crimes in Southern California during the last year and asked people to get in touch law enforcement if they came into contact with her at a medical facility.
