Bobbi Kristina Brown nurse had previous impostor accusation
NEW YORK -- The woman suspected of pretending to be a nurse while caring for Bobbi Kristina Brown in her final days has a history of impersonating nurses, according to documents obtained by 48 Hours' Crimesider.
Officials in Washington, D.C., issued a "nurse impostor warning" for Taiwo Sobamowo two years before authorities in Duluth, Ga., announced that she will face charges for impersonating a nurse while in charge of palliative care for Whitney Houston's only daughter, who died July 26.
Sobamowo was banned from applying to work at hospitals in D.C. after she "provided credentials under a different name, for a Registered Nurse licensed in the District of Columbia, for the purposes of employment," according to the warning, which was printed in the Nov. 2013 issue of District of Columbia Nurse, an official publication of the D.C. Board of Nursing.
The warning added that she used a legitimate license number that belong to another nurse, and advised hospitals to "contact the Metropolitan Police Department and the Board of Nursing if she applies for a job at your facility."
Sobamowo has addresses in Buford, Georgia, and Raleigh, North Carolina, where she was arrested on Oct. 31. Police said she had a rental car that was obtained using "one of her alias names."
She was transferred to a jail in Forsyth County, Ga., Wednesday, and was charged with felony first-degree forgery, felony identity fraud and misdemeanor practicing nursing without a license. Sobamowo is expected to be arraigned via video conference on Thursday.
The Duluth, Ga., Police Department was contacted by the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office on Oct. 27. "in reference to a high-profile case," according to a police report.
A Forsyth County detective concluded that Sobamowo secured employment at the Peachtree Christian Hospice Center -- where she was in charge of Brown's end of life care -- by using the stolen state-issued registered nurse license number of a nurse at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.
That nurse told police she does not know Sobamowo and never shared her license information with anyone.
Brown was taken to the hospice center in June, five months after she was found face-down and unresponsive in the bathtub of her Roswell, Ga., home.
Employment records obtained by police indicated that Sobamowo attended a medical college in Washington, D.C., but investigators were unable to confirm her attendance there.
A detective in the Duluth Police Department wrote in a report that Sobamowo also has a previous arrest in Minnesota. The report does not indicate what that arrest was for.
The report also notes that Sobamowo allegedly wrote a Facebook post about Brown's death on July 26. Her Facebook page allegedly included information indicating that she was a registered nurse, according to police.
Roswell police have been investigating the circumstances surrounding Brown's death and initial incapacitation in January.
In September, the Fulton County Medical Examiner said the cause has been determined, but the autopsy results will not be publicly revealed because of a court order to seal the results.