Woman faked her credentials to treat kids with autism, officials say. She’s prison bound

A woman lied about her credentials to get a job treating children diagnosed with autism, Michigan officials say.

Now, 38-year-old Kimberly Casey Coden is prison bound following her three-year stint working as the director of services at Oxford Recovery Center in Troy and Brighton, according to the Michigan Department of Attorney General.

It was a job she received in 2018 after officials say she presented herself as a board-certified behavioral analyst. Coden also said she had the necessary educational background.

But Coden was not licensed by the state of Michigan, nor did she have the proper education, meaning she was not certified to work at the facility providing “services to children diagnosed with autism,” according to the attorney general.

She also lied about her credentials to receive multiple other jobs beginning in 2016, officials said.

“Coden continuously presented herself as a certified and licensed BCBA through professional business cards, verbal statements, and written documents,” the attorney general’s office said in 2022. ”It is alleged she engaged in job duties which required such a certification and license while working with a highly vulnerable population of children diagnosed with autism as well as the parents of the child patients.”

Coden was charged in August 2022 with two counts of identity theft and 16 counts of unauthorized practice of a health profession, which was amended to six counts when she pleaded guilty this August.

She also pleaded guilty to the identity theft charges and one count of bribing or intimidating a witness, the attorney general said.

Officials said Coden will serve four to six years in prison for the six unauthorized practice charges, four to seven-and-a-half years for the identity theft charges and four to six years for the bribing charge.

“Falsifying credentials to gain access to a highly vulnerable population is unethical and reprehensible,” Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a Dec. 3 news release. “I hope this sentence serves as a warning for others that we take the proper training, qualifications, and licensing requirements very seriously and there are real consequences for those who deliberately shirk them.”

In a statement to the Detroit Free Press after she pleaded guilty, Coden’s attorney, Richard Lippitt, said she was “really, truly” remorseful.

“She has significant remorse and is anxious to put this matter behind her,” he told the publication.

Troy is a northern suburb of Detroit, and Brighton is about a 45-mile drive northwest of Detroit.