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It’s as if he wrote down everything cool he ever heard – trauma surgeon, flight surgeon, decorated Navy officer, assistant to the U.S. surgeon general, Army parachutist and helicopter pilot.
To live the life Douglas Martin claims he lived he would have been named Time magazine’s “person of the year” or be at least 80 years old.
But what the 58-year-old man was trying to do, federal prosecutors allege, is con a Fort Wayne woman out of her money, just as he is accused of doing in Albuquerque, N.M.
In early October, according to court documents, Martin faxed a cover letter, curriculum vitae and certificate of membership from the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States to the Fort Wayne VA Medical Center, applying for a job as a general surgeon.
“The documents represented that Martin was a multi-disciplined surgeon and decorated military officer with vast educational and professional experience,” wrote Joseph Cossairt, a special agent with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Office of Inspector General, in the criminal complaint.
VA doctors brought him up for an interview Oct. 25, obviously impressed with his résumé, according to court documents.
Martin brought a woman with him to the interview and told the doctors interviewing him it was his intention to move to Fort Wayne to pursue a relationship with her and, while he would be giving up trauma surgery, he would be “satisfied professionally if he could simply stay busy,” according to court documents.
The doctors, unnamed in court documents, told Martin to begin the credentialing process so they could verify his past employment and his impressive claims.
But Martin didn’t, or couldn’t, and the doctors learned he previously presented false credentials at a VA medical center in Albuquerque and was known to police in New Mexico for impersonating a physician and military officer, part of a repeated scheme to gain the trust of single women and take their money, according to court documents.
Further investigation revealed Martin is not, nor has he ever been, an active or reserve member or veteran of the U.S. military, according to court documents.
On Dec. 5, Cossairt spoke with the woman, who is also unnamed in court documents, and she said she had contacted Fort Wayne police, telling them she was a victim of fraud.
She said she met Martin through an online dating service in August and began a relationship. He told her he was a surgeon – certified in trauma, vascular and reconstructive surgery. That he served as an officer in the Navy Reserve. He flew helicopters. And he mailed her pictures of himself in doctor’s attire and a military dress uniform and e-mailed her scanned images of what he claimed were his medical license, certificates and a White House commendation, according to court documents.
Within two weeks he asked her to marry him and move to South Carolina. She said she couldn’t yet leave Fort Wayne, so he agreed to get a job here and scheduled the interview with the VA.
But then there were complications.
In early November, after his VA interview, Martin told the woman intruders broke into his house, burglarizing a safe and stealing medical research, medications and biohazardous materials. He had to freeze his bank accounts, he said, so he needed her to lend him some money, $700, until his accounts were secure.
She did, and he asked for her bank account number so he could put the money back. She declined, even though he asked about four times, and told him to mail her a check.
Court documents reveal she has seen none of the money.
Albuquerque police said they were investigating Martin for the theft of $60,000 from a woman this year in a similar scheme – met online, posed as a military officer and doctor. He told her to deposit the money into his account where it would draw more interest.
“When the victim checked the balance on the account some time later she discovered the balance to be near $0.00,” Crossairt wrote in his report.
The local VA doctors, at the urging of investigators, kept talking to Martin, asking him to fly to Fort Wayne for a credentialing interview Wednesday.
Martin was arrested, according to court records and jail officials, Tuesday. He appeared, not for a job interview, but a criminal arraignment before federal Magistrate Roger Cosbey on Thursday.
A federal grand jury indicted Martin on two charges – wire fraud and making false statements.
Cosbey ordered Martin be held in jail until his trial, citing concerns he would flee the district and is a danger to the community.
“The defendant is a danger to the community in that if released he could easily engage in fraudulent activities and secret himself from capture given the apparent ease by which he assumes bogus titles, occupations, and identities,” according to the court order.
rgreen@jg.net
