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A Clay County couple was arrested in Michigan on Tuesday after a woman falsified records to help her fiancée impersonate a nurse, deputies said.
Alexiea Irwin and Julien Williams are facing several charges, including 14 counts of practicing medicine without a license.
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WATCH HEREAccording to the Clay County Sheriff's Office, the monthslong investigation started on Oct. 13 after an elderly man died from natural causes after the family hired a licensed home health aide to take care of him.
Sheriff Michelle Cook said Irwin was hired by a home health care service in Jacksonville in September and had several roles, including patient care coordination and scheduling and human resources.
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During her time at the company, Cook said Irwin convinced the company to hire Williams as a home health aide even though he wasn't properly trained to be one and was not a nurse.
To accomplish this, Irwin falsified several records and documents for Williams and used her access at the company to use a former licensed practicing nurse's identity so that he could pose as the employee, Cook said.
Once Williams was hired after using fake credentials, he was paired with a family in Clay County who needed help taking care of an elderly man.
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Although Williams was not properly trained to care for the elderly patient, he was paid a high wage by the company because of his fabricated status.
Cook said that after the elderly patient died under Williams' care, detectives launched a fraud investigation into him and Irwin because they left the company following the death.
Williams and Irwin were then taken into custody by U.S. Marshals while they were in Michigan.
According to Cook, the couple was not charged with murder or manslaughter because the investigation did not yield evidence that they contributed to the elderly patient's death.
They will remain in Michigan until they're extradited to Clay County.
