BY JOHN SIMERMAN
A Jefferson Parish judge is scheduled to consider a proposed class-action settlement Wednesday over nursing home owner Bob Dean Jr.’s botched evacuation of 843 south Louisiana patients for Hurricane Ida.
Dean likely won’t appear to testify, though he's received a subpoena. That's because a probate judge in Georgia last month granted a petition to appoint Dean's wife, Karen Dean, as his emergency guardian, records show.
Those records cite medical evaluations that “support a determination (Dean) is diagnosed with dementia, short-term memory issues, and bipolar disorder,” the court order states.
In Georgia, judges may name a guardian or conservator if they find an adult “lacks sufficient capacity to make or communicate significant responsible decisions concerning the management of his or her property.”
The Sept. 26 order grants Karen Dean authority over her husband's medical treatment, contracts and legal matters. It says Bob Dean, 69, is at least $40 million in debt. There is no end date to the guardianship, a court official said.
How the Georgia order might affect the hearing this week before 24th Judicial District Judge Michael Mentz is uncertain.
Dean's lawyers have long argued that Dean suffers from dementia, and he's managed to avoid giving sworn statements over the evacuation of seven south Louisiana nursing homes to a Tangipahoa Parish warehouse.
His attorneys are also fighting Dean's subpoena, citing the guardianship order from Georgia. Forcing Dean to appear in a Jefferson Parish courtroom would be "oppressive, harassing, embarrassing, and unduly burdensome" for the former nursing home magnate, they argued in a request for a protective order.
"Dean's health and finances are in a state of collapse," they said.
Attorneys for some of Dean's former patients have cast doubt on that dire picture, suspecting an attempt to skirt accountability for the squalor he allegedly left his patients to wallow in at the warehouse in Independence.
Dean's attorneys claim he was "never the same" after he underwent dental surgery in April 2021, months before he launched an evacuation of his nursing homes as Hurricane Ida approached.
More than a dozen residents died in the evacuation’s aftermath, though coroners have classified only five of those deaths as "storm-related.” Records show Dean, who wasn't there, ignored staff pleas for help and browbeat state health inspectors who were trying to intervene.
Dean’s seven nursing homes were seized by lenders after state health officials pulled his operating licenses shortly after the evacuation. He quickly got behind on paying off a mountain of debt on the vacant homes. His attorneys cite $40 million in judgments related to those and other debts.
Dean also faces criminal charges related to the ill-fated evacuation. Attorney General Jeff Landry’s office booked him in June on eight counts of cruelty to the infirm, five counts of Medicaid fraud and two counts of obstruction of justice. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Advocates pushing for the settlement, led by attorney Rob Couhig, argue that time is wasting for elderly former patients who are rapidly dying off.
They say they’ve found little in the way of available assets to supplement insurance proceeds pegged at $13 million to $15 million. More than 100 of Dean’s former patients have died since the storm, attorneys estimate.
But lawyers for many of Dean’s former patients have balked at the proposed all-or-nothing settlement, calling it premature and claiming it lets Dean off the hook.
Morris Bart, whose firm represents scores of Dean’s former patients or their families, is opposing the proposed settlement, claiming it ignores possible assets Dean may be hiding.
Bart cites about $10.4 million that he argues could be available from additional insurance proceeds and frozen bank funds that Dean is trying to reclaim.
Staff writer Andrea Gallo contributed to this story.
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Nursing home owner Bob Dean loses legal control as judge weighs Ida evacuation settlement
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