Accused Fake Psychotherapist's Charges Upgraded to Felonies

Scott Curtis Redman | South Holland Police Department

An Indiana man who pleaded guilty last year to a misdemeanor charge for posing as a psychologist was back in court Friday after prosecutors said he violated his court supervision.

Scott Curtis Redman, 35, appeared in a Bridgeview courtroom where his misdemeanor charge was upgraded to two counts of rendering services without a license, both class 4 felonies. He’s also been charged in federal court for issuing controlled substance prescriptions using a fictitious registration number that was issued to another physician.

Redman allegedly offered psychotherapy services from various offices around the Southland, including Oak Lawn, Oak Forest, Tinley Park and South Holland, while posing as a psychologist.

In May 2014, the criminal complaint said Redman received a cease and desist order from the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation ordering him to stop his unlicensed practice of clinical psychology. Prosecutors claimed that Redman has never been licensed to practice psychology or render psychological services.

South Holland police arrested Redman on Dec. 30, 2014, after a Homer Glen woman he had treated for a year went to police with information her friend found on the internet about Redman’s arrest record, Daily Southtown reported of his plea bargain.

Redman pleaded guilty in October 2015 to a misdemeanor charge of practicing psychological therapy without a license before Cook County Judge Thomas O’Hara in Markham. Redman received a sentence of one year’s court supervision with special conditions that he was not represent himself as a psychologist. He was also ordered to pay $2,630 to the Homer Glen woman, Daily Southtown reported.

Prosecutors said that Redman began meeting with a husband and wife for marriage counseling, responding to an online ad that Redman had posted. Redman allegedly told the couple he was a psychotherapist with online PhD degrees from Kaplan and Walden University, two for-profit colleges.

The complaint states that Redman also provided the couple with a business card identifying himself as “Dr. S.C. Redman, PhD.” Redman charged the couple $80 per visit and met with them 23 times between April 28, 2015 and Dec. 3, 2015 for counseling. Five of those visits occurred after Oct. 26, 2015, when Redman was sentenced in the Markham case for practicing without a license.

Redman is also alleged to have counseled a mother and her 12-year-old son between May 30, 2015 and Dec. 5, 2015. Prosecutors said Redman again presented his PhD degrees from the online colleges, and his business card identifying himself as Dr. S.C. Redman.

The mother and her son met with Redman nine times. The mother was charged $60 per visit, and her son $40 per visit. Three of those visits occurred after his sentencing on the misdemeanor charges, the complaint said.

Officials from Kaplan and Walden claim that Redman never enrolled in courses, nor did he earn a degree from their respective colleges.

After learning that Redman’s degrees were fake, the married couple notified Oak Lawn police in December, ABC 7 Chicago reported.

Oak Lawn police shut down Redman’s clinic, Catharsis Clinical Services, in February, which he operated at 5533 W. 109th St. in Oak Lawn. Redman offered prospective clients a Groupon coupon for 40 percent off two counseling sessions, stating:

“The treatment provided should leave you truly feeling comfortable and understood so that you can come to truly understand yourself and meaningfully communicate this to your loved ones. Being able to look at yourself objectively helps you come to conclusions you never realized before.”

Redman operated another similarly named clinic, Catharsis Family Services, at 5320 W. 159th St., Suite 301, Oak Forest. According to his profile on the DoctorFolder, which bills itself as a “trusted network of top-rated doctors,” the phony shrink proclaimed that he had extensive experience working with adults, children, adolescents, couples and families focusing on “trauma and interpersonal conflict.”

Redman was brought up on federal charges in February after authorities said he fraudulently prescribed medications to a 9-year-old and dozens of other unwitting clients, news reports said.

A U.S. Magistrate judge found Redman to be a danger to the community and a flight risk. He is charged with knowingly and intentionally using a registration number issued to another physician to distribute and dispense a controlled substance.

Redman is now being held in federal custody without bail for allegedly issuing 71 controlled substance prescriptions to 44 different individuals from Dec. 10, 2015 to Jan. 30, 2016 in Chicago.

He is accused of most recently practicing psychology without a license at the Clarity Clinic, 1 E. Superior St., where Redman posed as a psychiatrist named “Dr. Julian David Lopez-Garcia.” Two of Redman’s clients have since filed lawsuits alleging that the mental health clinic failed to properly investigate Redman’s credentials, who is accused of stealing another doctor’s identify, Cook County Record said.

The clinic claims it only learned that Redman was not who he claimed to be after receiving a letter from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency informing them that Redman had stolen another doctor’s identity, the lawsuit alleges.

Redman’s case is next up in Bridgeview on May 26.