ATLANTA (CBS ATLANTA) -
A woman was caught performing invasive medical procedures without a license. Officials called it alarming and dangerous.
Reporter Jennifer Mayerle started her investigation at Omni Medical Center in Peachtree City. It looked legitimate from the outside. CBS Atlanta News uncovered some of the procedures performed inside are not only illegal, there are serious health risks.
Kristie Johnson is a single mom and owner of Omni Medical Center. According to patients, she injected them with Botox, made an incision in their skin to insert a hormone pellet and performed laser treatments.
Attorney Ken Bernard represents three of Johnson's patients.
"They believed she was a physician's assistant and this was an appropriate course of conduct for her to be going down," said Bernard.
Another patient said Johnson did his laser tattoo removal for a few hundred dollars. Instead of removing the faded blue tattoo, he said Johnson left him without skin in spots and killed the nerve endings. The procedure left behind a purple, bumpy scar.
CBS Atlanta News uncovered Johnson isn't licensed to do any of those treatments, and she's not a licensed physician's assistant. In fact, Mayerle couldn't find any medical license for Johnson.
"It's fraud, and you're potentially going to do serious harm to the public," said Dr. Charles White, chairman of the Georgia Composite Medical Board.
White believes Johnson poses a risk to the public.
"Infection would be a big risk, adverse affects of the medications that she's using," said White.
Johnson ran the Omni office in Peachtree City for nearly a year until she was evicted for not paying rent. She opened up shop at a new location in Douglasville. That's where CBS Atlanta News found her. We went undercover to schedule a consultation.
"Would you like to schedule an appointment and a consultation and kind of come in and learn what we do?" said Kristie Johnson.
That appointment wasn't kept because Johnson was thrown in jail during our investigation. Douglasville police arrested Johnson for unauthorized distribution of a controlled substance.
Johnson was in court on April 30.
"Are you on probation or parole?" the judge asked Johnson.
"No ma'am," said Johnson.
Court documents obtained by CBS Atlanta show Johnson is on probation out of Troup County for theft by receiving stolen property.
Peachtree City has six warrants on Johnson for practicing medicine without a license.
"We do know that she's been practicing hormone therapy that requires an incision, Botox injections and has also been drawing blood," said Lt. Jason Epps with Peachtree City Police.
"Those are all things she's not licensed to do," said Mayerle.
"Not licensed in Georgia or any other state we can find. It appears she was. It was fairly easy for her," said Epps.
"Why is it important for someone to have a license?" Mayerle asked White.
"Then we can ensure the public is safe. That is our job to provide the safety to the public of Georgia. That's our primary purpose, and we can't do that unless there's a license," said White.
Bernard worries about his clients and other patients.
"We're very concerned about the long-term effect and short-term effect. Right now we don't know what it means," said Bernard.
CBS Atlanta News also discovered Johnson left several people out of money with Groupons they bought and were never able to use. And investors of Omni Medical Center tell CBS Atlanta News she owes them hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Investigators want to hear from anyone who has received a treatment or had any interaction with Johnson.
To find out if a medical professional has a license, go to the Georgia Composite Medical Board or the Secretary of State's website to check.
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