A Yonkers woman who worked for nearly two years as a physical therapist at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn was arraigned on Monday, November 2, on an indictment charging her with identity theft and forgery — because, prosecutors say, she was never licensed to practise physical therapy in New York State at all, and the licence number, university diploma and court document she allegedly used to get the job were fake.
Source: Brooklyn District Attorney's Office
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, announcing the case together with New York City Department of Investigation (DOI) Commissioner Nadia I. Shihata, identified the defendant as Diamond Walker, 36, of Yonkers, New York. Walker was arraigned before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Matthew Blum. She was released without bail and ordered to return to court on December 9, 2026. Every charge in this report is an allegation: an indictment is merely an accusation and is not proof of guilt, as the District Attorney's own announcement states.
The four charges
The indictment charges Walker with first-degree identity theft, second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, and first-degree falsifying business records. The District Attorney's announcement does not state the maximum penalties attached to those counts, and no plea has been reported.
What prosecutors say the job application claimed
According to the investigation described by the District Attorney, Walker was hired as a physical therapist at Kings County Hospital on March 11, 2024, after submitting an employment application in which she claimed to be a licensed physical therapist in New York State. She also allegedly claimed to have earned a doctorate in physical therapy from Columbia University and a master's degree in athletic training from Long Island University.
Prosecutors allege that none of it was true: Walker was not licensed to practise physical therapy in New York State, had never attended Columbia University and had not graduated from Long Island University. To support the application, she allegedly submitted a fraudulent physical therapy licence bearing another individual's licence number, a fabricated diploma from Columbia University, and a forged document purporting to be from Kings County Family Court regarding a name change. Her employment was terminated on February 5, 2026, following the investigation.
What the District Attorney and the DOI Commissioner said
District Attorney Gonzalez said: “Patients place enormous trust in the healthcare professionals who treat them, and they deserve to know those professionals are properly trained and licensed. This defendant allegedly used someone else's licence number and forged academic credentials to secure a job as a physical therapist at a public hospital, potentially putting patients at risk and betraying that fundamental trust. We will aggressively pursue those who use fraud to gain positions of responsibility in our healthcare system, and I thank the Department of Investigation for its partnership in this case.”
DOI Commissioner Shihata said: “New York requires physical therapists to be licensed to protect the public and ensure clinical competence. As charged, this defendant allegedly submitted fraudulent documents claiming to be a licensed physical therapist in New York State, have a doctorate in physical therapy from Columbia University, and a master's degree from Long Island University. These alleged fabrications allowed her to obtain employment at Kings County Hospital.” Shihata said DOI will be making recommendations to strengthen Kings County Hospital's hiring and employee background process, and she thanked the District Attorney's Office and NYC Health + Hospitals for their assistance in the investigation.
How the investigation was run
At DOI, the investigation was conducted by Special Investigator Jasmine Singh, Assistant Inspector General Sean Hallinan and Deputy Inspector General Giovanni Liotine of DOI's Office of the Inspector General for NYC Health + Hospitals, together with the NYPD Detective Squad assigned to DOI. It was supervised by Deputy Commissioner and Chief of Investigations Michael P. Mullahy and Acting First Deputy Commissioner Christopher Ryan. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Gwen Barnes, Deputy Bureau Chief for Healthcare and Elder Fraud, and Assistant District Attorney Adam Libove, Chief of the Public Integrity Bureau, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Michel Spanakos, Deputy Chief of the Investigations Division, and Assistant District Attorney Patricia McNeill, Chief of Investigations.
Why licensing exists — and why this case reaches beyond one hospital
Physical therapy is hands-on rehabilitation care: therapists assess injuries, set treatment plans and work directly with patients recovering from surgery, strokes and serious accidents. That is why New York requires physical therapists to be licensed — the licence is the public's guarantee that the person treating them completed accredited training and passed the state's examinations, as Commissioner Shihata's statement underlines. Kings County Hospital is a major public hospital in the NYC Health + Hospitals system, serving Brooklyn neighbourhoods including large Caribbean, South Asian and Punjabi communities, many of whose members also work inside the city's public hospitals as nurses, therapists, technicians and support staff — almost all of them after long, documented credential checks of their own training, including training completed outside the United States.
Cases like this one, prosecutors and investigators say, are exactly why those checks exist — and DOI's promised recommendations to strengthen the hospital's hiring and background process mean the case is likely to change how credentials are verified for future hires across the public hospital system, not only in Brooklyn.
Diamond Walker has been indicted and arraigned, not convicted. The District Attorney's announcement states plainly: “An indictment is merely an accusation and not proof of a defendant's guilt.” She was released without bail after arraignment.
What happens next
Walker is due back in Brooklyn Supreme Court on December 9, 2026, before Justice Matthew Blum. Between now and then, DOI is expected to deliver its recommendations on strengthening Kings County Hospital's hiring and employee background checks. No trial date has been announced, and the District Attorney's office has not alleged that any specific patient was harmed; the risk to patients is described in the announcement as potential.