Woman Arrested For Posing As Nurse At Bobbi Brown Hospice

The 22-year-old Brown died July 26, six months after she was found face-down and unresponsive in the bathtub of her townhome in January. In that span, police have investigated, lawyers have traded accusations about what caused her death and tabloids have covered every development.

There’s no indication in a police report obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday that Brown’s care was affected by Taiwo Sobamowo, the nurse in charge of caring for the 22-year-old at Peachtree Christian Hospice in Duluth.

Police said Sobamowo, 32, was impersonating a licensed nurse with a similar name and faces charges that include identity fraud and nursing without a license.

In a statement, Homestead Hospice CEO Mallie Sharafat said the company performed a background check and reviewed references from other health care agencies in the area. The company contracts with the hospice to provide care employees.

“We had no reason to believe that she was anything other than a good nurse with proper credentials,” Sharafat wrote. “As soon as the credentialing discrepancy was discovered by one of our employees, we immediately took action and notified the appropriate authorities.”

An alert published by the Georgia Board of Nursing following Sobamowo’s arrest said she was fired Aug. 5 when she couldn’t provide proof of a license.

Sharafat said the company has since taken “further precautions,” including re-credentialing all care staff.

Sobamowo, who has addresses in Buford, Georgia, and Raleigh, North Carolina, was arrested Sunday and was being held Tuesday in a Raleigh jail on a charge of being a fugitive from another state, records show. The jail had no record of an attorney representing her.

The case involving Sobamowo began in September, when investigators in Forsyth County began looking into her background after they received a tip raising questions about Sobamowo, who had worked at an assisted living facility, sheriff’s Deputy Epifanio Rodriguez said Tuesday.

Sobamowo faces charges of first-degree forgery, identity fraud and practicing nursing without a license in Forsyth County, Rodriguez said.

On Oct. 27, Forsyth County sheriff’s Detective Cpl. Jeffrey Roe contacted Duluth police “in reference to a high-profile case” that Duluth has some jurisdiction over, Duluth police wrote in their report.

Roe said Sobamowo had stolen the state-issued RN number of a real nurse at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.

“Our investigation has revealed no license or registration on record through the Georgia Board of Nursing for Sobamowo,” Duluth police said in a separate statement on the case.

“Documentation obtained through Sobamowo’s employment records indicated she attended a medical college in Washington, D.C.,” the statement said. “To date we have been unable to confirm her attendance at this school.”

Duluth police said they’ve obtained a warrant charging Sobamowo with practicing as a registered nurse without a license in that city and that additional charges may be filed.

Roswell police have been investigating the circumstances surrounding Brown’s death. In September, the Fulton County Medical Examiner said the cause has been determined, but the autopsy results would not be publicly revealed because of a court order to seal the results.