Lake Mary police arrest man accused of posing as nurse

Joseph Thomas Kinney worked for nearly two months last summer at Bayada at Lake Mary as a registered nurse even though his license had been revoked in 2022. The case came to light after a sergeant recognized him from an earlier news report. Kinney, 56, was picked up July 1 in Daytona Beach on a warrant issued in January and later faced a Seminole County judge on a charge of unlicensed practice of a health care profession.

Kinney used another person’s name and nursing license to apply for jobs across Central Florida, and detectives put the number at about 10 to 15 applications. He was hired for two positions, one in Seminole County and one in Orange County, and worked at each for less than a week. His disciplinary history included diverting drugs from an employer, driving under the influence of drugs, providing false information and unprofessional conduct.

The Seminole County case grew out of a Volusia County investigation that started when a nurse hiring manager raised concerns about suspicious applications. Detectives posed as a hiring coordinator and set up an undercover interview, leading to Kinney’s earlier arrest. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General was present for that arrest and is assisting with the follow-up investigation. In Operation Nightingale, federal investigators tied 7,300 fake diplomas to the case, and phase one led to charges and convictions of 30 people in 2023. Last month, Kinney was placed on five years’ probation with a condition that he not work in health care.