A prosecutor is seeking a 7-year 8-month prison term for a La Mesa man who was convicted of practicing medicine without a license and treating people with HIV/AIDS and cancer with expensive and useless treatments.
Keith Allen Barton, 52, appeared Monday before San Diego Superior Court Judge Amalia Meza who re-scheduled his sentencing for March 14 at the request of his attorney who wanted more time to prepare.
Barton remains in the East Mesa Detention Facility without bail since he was remanded to jail Jan. 10 after the jury convicted him of six counts of practicing medicine without a license, two counts of grand theft, attempted grand theft and false personation of a Berkeley physician with his same name.
Deputy District Attorney Gina Darvas urged the maximum term, saying he “stole more than $150,000 from his victims” in court documents to Meza. Darvas said Barton “took advantage of a position of trust (because) he pretended to be a doctor.”
The documents cite another case not prosecuted that involved Barton’s treatment of a depressed woman who suffered from fibromyalgia and depression. Barton told her to stop taking anti-depressants and persuaded her to have her teeth extracted at a Mexican clinic in 2007.
The woman paid Barton $20,000, but did not get better and he offered to treat her with an animal dewormer. The woman committed suicide.
Another case not prosecuted was the treatment of a man with cancer who paid $18,000 for treatment of “dendritic cell therapy” in 2003. This treatment involves taking blood from the patient, subjecting it to some type of process, and then re-injecting it back into the patient. It’s bogus, writes Darvas.
The other cases involved treatment of a 9-year-old girl with AIDS who died after her mother paid Barton $18,000 and a man who paid him $100,000 for treatment for his ill wife who had cancer. Other patients were defrauded of $38,000.
Darvas claims in court documents that Barton’s conduct served the purpose “to feed his ego and fulfill his fantasy of being a medical doctor.”
She asked for consecutive sentences for each crime.
Barton’s attorney has not filed any sentencing documents with the judge since the jury convicted him after four hours of deliberations.
