PLEASANT GROVE — When Jeff Robinson received a call last January from a family questioning the cause of their mother's death, he didn't know what he was getting into.
Once he started researching the background of a 53-year-old Pleasant Grove doctor and attorney, Robinson said, he and others unraveled years and years of lie after lie after lie.
He compared the man's life to the movie "Catch Me If You Can" but said the movie "paled in comparison."
Martin Joseph MacNeill's lies allegedly started years ago when he signed up for the Army at age 17, Robinson, the chief investigator for the Utah County Attorney's Office, told the Deseret News. MacNeill was put on disability leave two years later when a medical officer deemed him a "latent schizoprenic" with "other mental and psychological infirmities," according to documents Utah County investigators obtained in their research.
He was convicted of three theft, burglary and forgery felonies in California in 1978 and served time in jail. Then MacNeill falsified transcripts and lied on applications to get into two different medical schools — and later to Brigham Young University Law School, according to Robinson.
He was licensed as a physician in California and then in Utah where he worked at the BYU Health Center for several years until he became the clinical director of the Utah State Developmental Center in American Fork in 2000.
"Things were not adding up," Robinson said. "He was not the physician he was saying he was."
Investigators found records indicating that MacNeill graduated from Saint Martin's University in Washington in psychology and sociology, but 65 of the credits he attained were supposedly from the Army's extension program and their validity has been questioned, Robinson said. After contacting colleges that MacNeill attended, Robinson said investigators discovered that MacNeill tampered with his transcripts to indicate that he graduated in psychology and biology and that he received higher grades than he actually did.
Family members told investigators they found a stamp with the Saint Martin's University seal in the back of his car, along with high-quality stationery, Robinson said.
With these allegedly false transcripts, MacNeill was able to get into a medical school in Guadalajara, Mexico, while he was still on probation from his felony charges in 1978.
After a semester there and while still on probation, Robinson said, MacNeill transferred to Western University of Health Sciences in California with his previous falsified transcripts, which also stated that he had been at the Guadalajara medical school for a full year, according to documents from the Utah County Attorney's Office.
The same year he transferred, he had an interview with the Army to check up on his disability leave, during which he allegedly told the examiner that he had not been working or attending school. Robinson said that made him eligible for 50 percent disability pay from the Veterans Administration and he later received 100 percent pay, according to documents investigators obtained. Robinson said the VA is investigating that matter. MacNeill also managed to receive 100 percent pay from Social Security.
The Social Security Administration is also investigating MacNeill, as is the Utah State Division of Professional Licensing and the U.S. Postal Inspector, Robinson said.
In 1984, MacNeill was licensed as an osteopathic surgeon in California, but when he applied for a license to practice in Pennsylvania he was denied due to problems with his graduation information from Saint Martins, according to Robinson.
"They were the only entity that figured out he did not qualify," Robinson said of the license denial.
Three years later, MacNeill received a license to practice as an osteopathic physician and surgeon in Utah. He also applied and was accepted to BYU Law School and started working part time for the BYU Health Center under what investigators say was a false pretense that he had no diagnosed psychological disorders. Investigators learned that during his work at BYU, he was accused of rape by a student, according to subpoened information. No charges were ever filed, however, Robinson said.
While he was still in law school in 1990, MacNeill was taken to court over another matter — Medicaid fraud — and was banned from having any Medicare patients for the next 12 years, Robinson said. He received his third medical license from Washington in 1997 and moved there for two years, then came back to Utah and worked for the BYU Health Center again before being terminated for undisclosed reasons.
At this point, he became the clinical director of the American Fork developmental center.
Robinson said MacNeill's life was quiet as far as the law goes until 2007 when charges of sexual abuse were filed by a relative shortly after his wife, Michele, died on April 11, 2007. He has a hearing in this case on Nov. 2 in Provo's 4th District Court.
"Directly after the death of his wife, Martin and his girlfriend, Gypsy Willis, began altering Willis' identity, obtaining false military identifications, a Utah state identification card, and opened numerous bank accounts under the false name and identity," a Utah County Attorney's Office press release states.
MacNeill was indicted in federal court in January on nine counts of aiding and abetting in aggravated identity theft, misuse of a Social Security number, and making false statements. He pleaded guilty to two counts of aiding and abetting in aggravated identity theft.
Last month, MacNeill was sentenced to four years in prison by Judge Dee Benson.
Willis was indicted on 11 different counts, including misuse of a social security card. She pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated identity theft and was sentenced to 21 months in prison. Willis was to begin serving her time before Oct. 15 but was arrested on Sept. 9 when prosecutors say she tried to flee to Mexico and she was ordered to start serving her sentence immediately.
Prosecutors say MacNeill admitted falsifying a burglary report and the loss of more than $10,000 from his Pleasant Grove home. He also obtained a fraudulent birth certificate for another person, court documents state. On Monday, MacNeill — a father of eight — pleaded guilty to three felonies of false and inconsistent statements, insurance fraud and forgery in Provo's 4th District Court and Judge Samuel McVey ordered him to serve three years in jail.
MacNeill will serve his state sentence concurrently with his federal prison sentence, after which he will be on probation for six years.
Robinson said the investigators are about finished with the white-collar investigation, but looking back he can't believe everything that MacNeill was able to slip past so many people.
"It is amazing story about how he got from one place to another through lies," Robinson said. "Whenever you can become a doctor and an attorney based on lies, that is an amazing thing."
The investigation of Michele MacNeill's death is still ongoing, he said.
Contributing: Emiley Morgan
e-mail: slenz@desnews.com