The author of the bestselling “The pH Miracle” book series was sentenced in Vista on Wednesday to five years and eight months in prison for charges including practicing medicine without a license and willful abuse of an elderly woman for trying to treat her liver and thyroid conditions.
In February, a Vista Superior Court jury found Young guilty of four charges, which also include theft from an elder, involving a Northern California woman who was 79 years old when she went to him for medical treatments. A co-defendant, who was convicted of the same charges as Young except elder abuse, is slated to be sentenced next week.
This is the second time in the last decade Robert Oldham Young has been sentenced in Vista Superior Court following convictions for alleged attempts to treat people without a license. At trial in 2016, the prosecution highlighted his controversial theories and the pricey treatments he offered to seriously ill or dying patients, who in some cases were given intravenous fluids mixed with baking soda at $500 a piece. The IVs were not a part of the current case.
In 2018, a San Diego Superior Court civil jury awarded one of his former adherents — a cancer patient who has since died — a $105 million verdict against him, although an appeals court later knocked the award down to a fraction of that amount.
Young is not a licensed physician. His work is based on the theory that acidity in the body causes disease and that the answer is an alkaline diet. He’s the author of several books, including the bestselling “The pH Miracle: Balance Your Diet, Reclaim Your Health,” which was published in 2002 and later translated into more than 18 languages.
The sentence appears to be the maximum that Judge Laura Duffy could hand down to Young. In court Wednesday, Duffy said Young had “engaged in long-term fraud and manipulation” of the victim, and has “a lengthy career of defrauding victims.”
The judge said the victim in the current case relied on “Young’s representation of his professional credentials and knowledge.” Duffy also pointed to “the false, intentionally cultivated appearance that he was a trained doctor” who could test, diagnose and treat the victim, who had traveled to San Diego County for treatment.
“This court is not punishing you for your beliefs. This court is not punishing you for your thoughts,” Duffy said.
The jury, she said, “heard the evidence, and they made a decision based on the facts.”
“A jury of 12 members of the community found you guilty for practicing medicine without a license, for conducting testing, for conducting diagnoses, for prescribing, putting in place a treatment plan, and specifically testing and giving diagnosis and treatments that require — under the law — a medical license,” she said.
Young’s attorneys had asked Duffy to sentence him to probation for three years or to no more than two years in custody.
“Mr. Young, for better or for worse, believes what he says,” attorney Stephen Larson told the judge. “These are honestly held beliefs.”
Deputy District Attorney Gina Darvas argued that Young “is callous. He is not misguided.” The prosecutor, who also handled the case Young faced a decade ago, said the victim in the current case had “fully bought into his phony credentials and pseudoscience.”
The victim provided the court a written statement, read aloud by Darvas, calling it “all a sham.” The woman, who said she is now in poor physical health, said Young told her to take his recommended supplements and not to listen to doctors.
“Young knew he wasn’t a doctor, knew he wasn’t qualified,” she wrote. “Robert Young is a fraud and a charlatan, and worst of all, people still believe them.”
Several of Young’s supporters filled the courtroom Wednesday and also rallied in front of the courthouse beforehand, some holding handwritten signs calling for Young’s release from custody and for “medical freedom.” One woman’s sign stated it had been proven that Young’s treatments could cure cancer.
In court Wednesday, Darvas said Young’s degrees are from “a well-known diploma mill.” During his trial proceedings less than a decade ago, Darvas said Young has doctorate degrees in naturopathy and nutrition from a non-accredited and now-defunct correspondence school in Alabama, and that he went from a bachelor’s degree to a doctorate in about eight months in 1995. She also said Young took just one general biology course at the University of Utah, which he attended in the 1970s.
The criminal case brought in 2014 in San Diego County ended with convictions a few years later; a North County jury found Young guilty of practicing medicine without a license but deadlocked on other counts. Young soon struck a plea deal that put an end to the criminal case.
As part of the plea deal, Darvas insisted on a specific condition: Young had to publicly declare that he is not a microbiologist, hematologist, medical or naturopathic doctor, or trained scientist. He did so on the record in court.
In court Wednesday, Young spoke for a couple of minutes, giving a statement in which he claimed his federal and state due process rights and protections under the Hague Conventions.
Young has faced criminal charges outside of San Diego County. In 1995, Young was arrested in Utah on two felony charges of practicing medicine without a license. He pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor, which was dismissed 18 months later under a plea deal. He was charged again in Utah in 2001, but the case was dismissed.
City News Service contributed to this report.