Nursing home owner who left 800 people in warehouse during Hurricane Ida avoids jail time

Bob Dean Jr gets probation after pleading no contest to counts of cruelty to infirmed people and healthcare fraud

By: Ramon Antonio Vargas

A Louisiana nursing home magnate who left 800 elderly residents to endure a potent hurricane inside a fetid warehouse has avoided prison time after choosing not to dispute the cruelty charges facing him.

Bob Dean Jr on Monday received three years of probation – along with about $2m in penalties, court costs and restitution – after pleading no contest to eight counts of cruelty to infirmed people, five of healthcare fraud and two of obstruction of justice.

An undated image provided by the Tangipahoa parish sheriff’s office of Bob Dean Jr. Photograph: AP

Dean entered his plea at a state courthouse in Amite City, Louisiana, about three years after several deaths during Hurricane Ida in 2021 were linked to the storage facility at the center of the case against him.

Louisiana’s state attorney general, Liz Murrill, said prosecutors had unsuccessfully asked Judge Brian Abels to sentence Dean to least five years imprisoned and not “only probation”. Abels technically handed Dean a 20-year prison sentence but deferred it in its entirety in favor of probation.

“Our prosecutors urged that Mr Dean be held accountable for his actions, which led to the deaths of numerous elderly individuals,” Murrill said in a statement. “I respect our judicial system and that the judge has the ultimate discretion over the appropriate sentence, but I remain of the opinion that Dean should be serving prison time.”

Abels said the 70-year-old Dean’s age, lack of prior criminal convictions and the amount he had to repay all factored into his sentence, according to a report from the CBS affiliate WWL Louisiana.

The outlet added that family members of people who died at the warehouse addressed Abels through tears Monday, saying they never got a chance to say goodbye to loved ones who were left to die at the facility.

Dean sent 843 residents of seven Louisiana nursing homes to a squalid, former pesticide plant in the town of Independence, about 70 miles (110km) north-west of New Orleans, to ride out Ida as the category 4 storm took aim at the region.

With winds of about 150 miles (241km) an hour, Ida caused widespread power outages and other devastation across south-east Louisiana in August 2021. Residents of Dean’s nursing homes were later found sleeping on mattresses atop a wet floor – without access to their medicines, sobbing and lying in their own feces.

Warehouse conditions devolved after the failure of generators meant to provide electricity to the facility. Indoor temperatures soared to dangerous levels, prompting warnings from caretakers that Dean ignored.

The ceiling leaked, toilets overflowed and there was not enough food or water for residents who were packed in so closely it was impossible to comply with social distancing guidelines in effect at the time because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Officials ultimately linked five of the 26 deaths that occurred in Louisiana because of Ida to the warehouse in question. Ensuing investigations determined Dean had billed the federal Medicaid program for dates his residents were not receiving care, refused to move clients out of the warehouse and “engaged in conduct intended to intimidate or obstruct public health officials and law enforcement”.

Dean later lost his licenses and federal funding to operate his nursing homes. And in June 2022, prosecutors filed the criminal charges to which he later pleaded no contest.

Though Abels said Dean had no history of criminal convictions, the case resolved on Monday was far from Dean’s only recent legal issue.

Notably, he also grappled with several lawsuits from families of those left in the Independence warehouse.

About three months after authorities charged him, attorneys for the plaintiffs announced a $12m settlement with Dean. A February 2023 report from the Louisiana news outlet nola.com reported that the families had not gotten any settlement payments, which average about $10,000 per nursing home at the warehouse after accounting for attorneys’ fees and other costs.

Elsewhere, Georgia authorities charged Dean with criminal conduct after he shot his thumb off there – and Oregon officials scrutinized him after cattle from his ranch in that state needed to be rescued from a snowstorm, nola.com also reported.

Dean’s attorney, J Garrison Jordan, told nola.com that his client’s plea and sentence Monday were “a fair disposition of the case, and everybody has closure”.

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Nursing home owner who left 800 people in warehouse during Hurricane Ida avoids jail time

Jefferson Parish judge will give ruling Monday on Bob Dean nursing home settlement

by Cassie Schirm

JEFFERSON PARISH, La. — A Jefferson Parish judge rule on a proposed class-action settlement over nursing home owner Bob Dean Jr.'s deadly evacuation of 843 Louisiana residents during Hurricane Ida will happen Monday.

Dean is accused of evacuating seven nursing homes to a warehouse in Independence.

Conditions in the warehouse in Tangipahoa Parish quickly deteriorated, with one lawsuit claiming things were "horrific."

At least four people died, and the state quickly shut down the site and transferred residents.

Records show Dean wasn't there and ignored staff begging for help.

Since then, Dean has been, according to his attorneys, diagnosed with dementia at age 69 and under guardianship. His wife, Karen Dean, has been named his guardian.

Back in September, the class action council and the plaintiff attorneys met to discuss an all-or-nothing class action settlement that would be paid through insurance and give each resident roughly $17,000. That is not including attorney fees and costs.

Some lawyers requested additional time to determine if Dean has more money or assets to put toward a settlement.

In this week's hearings, Dean's attorneys argued that Dean is now at least $40 million in debt and now owes over $73 million in lawsuit judgments and that there was no way he would ever get out of the red.

Attorneys went on to say that he had no more money to give after having everything taken away from him.

Even though he was subpoenaed, Dean did not show up to court this week.

Matthew Hemmer, an attorney for the Morris Bart law firm, pushed back pointing out that Dean has not filed for bankruptcy, and they have not seen his full financials. Saying there could be more assets in the dozens of properties possibly connected.

Hemmer said if there is more money, the families have a right to fight for it.

"That's really what we're trying to get at," Hemmer said. "We want them to have the choice to be able to say this is a fair deal or no we want to chase them for more, that's what it comes down to. Should the victims have a choice."

Attorney Rob Couhig, co-class counsel, said the time is now as it's costing the families more by dragging it out mentally and financially saying the debt for Dean grows by $12,500 a day.

“We can’t bring back those five days, but we can make it a little bit better for the families and those who have survived,” Couhig said. “These people are dying. They’re old."

Since the evacuation over a year ago, attorneys believe more than 100 residents have passed away.

District Judge Michael Mentz said he would give a ruling by Monday on whether to approve the all-or-nothing class action settlement.

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Jefferson Parish judge will give ruling Monday on Bob Dean nursing home settlement

Embattled nursing home owner Bob Dean could soon lose control over his affairs

Ruling may not affect Dean's criminal case, though a conservator could replace him in civil lawsuits

 

by John Simerman

Former Louisiana nursing home magnate Bob Dean could be stripped of control over his affairs in a pending Georgia court proceeding, according to attorneys involved in a slew of lawsuits over Dean’s botched evacuation of 843 patients last year for Hurricane Ida.

The move could cast Dean to the sidelines as lawyers weigh a proposed class-action settlement over the evacuation of seven south Louisiana nursing homes to a warehouse in Tangipahoa Parish, where conditions quickly soured and his patients languished for days.

It wouldn’t affect Dean’s need to answer to criminal charges he faces in both Louisiana and Oregon, said one Georgia legal expert.

Attorney H. Minor Pipes III, who is defending Dean over the lawsuits related to the evacuation, told plaintiffs’ attorneys that Dean was being “interdicted,” one of those attorneys told a judge in court on Tuesday.

Pipes declined to comment afterward, saying he wasn’t Dean’s lawyer in that process and hadn’t seen a court order. A probate court clerk in Fulton County, Georgia, said information about the case would remain sealed until a final decision. Dean’s attorney in Georgia, where he faces criminal charges over an incident in which he shot off his own thumb, and also a felony obstruction count, declined to comment. 

Dean, 68, has managed to avoid sitting for depositions over the ill-fated evacuation, which forced patients to sit in squalor while Dean ignored staff pleas for help and browbeat state health inspectors who were trying to intervene, records show.

His attorneys have fought to keep it that way, presenting evidence that Dean suffers from dementia.

In Louisiana, Attorney General Jeff Landry’s office booked Dean in June on eight counts of cruelty to the infirm, five counts of Medicaid fraud and two counts of obstruction of justice.

Dean’s seven nursing homes all remain shuttered, having been seized by lenders. After state health officials pulled his licenses to run them shortly after the evacuation, Dean quickly got behind on a mountain of debt, court records show.

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.”

Mary Radford, a law professor emerita at Georgia State University who authored a textbook on guardianships and conservatorships in Georgia, said the law means “the adult loses his right to bring or defend any action” in court, except for the conservatorship.

“He’s also going to lose the right to make contracts, which means he couldn’t settle” lawsuits, Radford said.

A conservator would take Dean’s place in the civil lawsuits, but criminal courts judges make their own calls on whether defendants are competent to stand trial, Radford said.

“The mere fact that he has become a ward does not mean these actions can’t proceed against him,” Radford said. “There will be judicial proceedings. He may not be participating in the same way.”

Radford noted that probate judges can also limit a conservator’s power, leaving the ward with some agency.

Monica Hof Wallace, a Loyola University law professor, said a Georgia ruling to place Dean under a conservatorship wouldn’t restrain civil court judges in Louisiana from making their own decisions over his ability to sit for depositions.

“The trial judge gets to decide,” she said.

Suzette Bagneris, an attorney for several plaintiffs suing Dean over the evacuation, raised the specter of lengthy delays from an interdiction as she lobbied Tuesday for swift approval of a proposed settlement to cover all of the evacuated residents or their family members.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys jousted Tuesday over the proposed settlement, which is pegged at $13 million to $15 million. That money, to be paid out by Dean’s insurance companies, might average around $13,000 per patient after attorneys fees under the proposed deal.

More than a dozen residents died in the aftermath of the evacuations, though coroners have classified only five as "storm-related.” Bagneris claimed Tuesday that at least 100 and possibly up to 200 of Dean’s former residents have since passed away.

Attorney Rob Couhig, who is leading the push to settle, argued that time is wasting for those who suffered at the warehouse. Couhig said few other Dean assets have turned up to add to the amount.

“We went and found all the insurance that’s there,” Couhig said. “Many of these people will continue to die. Many of these people will continue to become more infirm.”

Morris Bart, whose firm represents scores of Dean’s former patients or their families, has objected to the proposed settlement, however, along with a few other attorneys who claim they were blindsided by it.

They argue that Couhig and others are trying to ramrod through a deal that may not be in the best interests of the plaintiffs and lets Dean off the financial hook.

Bart claimed Tuesday that he’s found nearly $8 million in equity on Dean‘s other properties that the settlement ignores. He pleaded with District Judge Michael Mentz for more time to flesh it out.

“How do I go tell 180 clients (that) Bob Dean, despite the misery and death he’s caused, is going to walk away from this and not pay one dollar, and continue to live in his mansion?” Bart said. “It’s so patently unfair.”

Mentz delayed a hearing to debate the proposed settlement until Nov. 2.

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Embattled nursing home owner Bob Dean could soon lose control over his affairs

Nursing home owner who left 800 in fetid warehouse during hurricane jailed

by Ramon Antonio Vargas 

Homes and businesses damaged after the hurricane tore through Louisiana. Photograph: Adrees Latif/Reuters

A Louisiana nursing home owner who sent more than 800 elderly residents to endure Hurricane Ida in a ramshackle warehouse was charged on Wednesday with neglect and other crimes.

Bob Dean, 68, surrendered to the Louisiana attorney general’s office and was jailed on eight counts of cruelty to infirmed people, five counts of healthcare fraud and two counts of obstruction of justice.

A statement from Louisiana’s attorney general, Jeff Landry, alleged that Dean had billed the federal Medicaid program for dates his residents were not receiving care, refused to move residents out of the warehouse and “engaged in conduct intended to intimidate or obstruct public health officials and law enforcement”.

Dean flew in from Georgia to turn himself over to authorities on an arrest warrant they obtained for him in recent days. His attorney, John McClindon, told the Associated Press that his client would be released on a $350,000 bond.

McClindon added: “I don’t think Bob Dean did anything that rose to the level of criminal.”

The criminal charges mark only the latest set of complications for Dean, who is facing a mound of unresolved civil litigation over his decision to send residents to the squalid warehouse in Independence, a town about 70 miles (110km) north-west of New Orleans while Ida caused widespread power outages and other devastation in south-east Louisiana in August 2021.

Besides losing his licenses and federal funding to operate his seven nursing homes in Louisiana, his attorneys have said Dean is battling dementia and other memory problems.

Bob Dean in an image provided by the Tangipahoa parish sheriff’s office. Photograph: AP

He is facing an unrelated reckless conduct criminal charge in Georgia after he shot his thumb off and Oregon authorities are investigating him after cattle from his ranch in that state had to be rescued from a snowstorm, the Baton Rouge Advocate newspaper reported.

Authorities say some of the residents Dean’s nursing homes sent to the Independence warehouse were found sleeping on mattresses atop a wet floor, sobbing and lying in their own feces.

Some came without their medicines to endure a Category 4 storm packing winds of 150 miles an hour. Conditions at the facility devolved rapidly, with generators used to provide electricity failing, driving indoor temperatures to dangerously high levels. The ceiling leaked, toilets overflowed and there was a dearth of food and water for residents who were packed in so closely it was impossible to follow social distancing guidelines in place because of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Five of the 26 deaths that occurred in Louisiana for reasons related to Ida were linked to the fetid warehouse, according to officials, who had since launched an investigation into Dean and his nursing homes.

A total of more than a dozen others who had been at the facility died in the aftermath of Ida’s landfall in the state on 29 August, the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

The most serious charges filed against Dean are the ones alleging cruelty to people with infirmities. Under Louisiana law, any one of those counts can carry up to 10 years in prison if he is convicted.

Dean owns two nursing homes in New Orleans, three in adjacent Jefferson parish and one each in nearby Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes. All of those areas directly experienced Ida’s effects.

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Nursing home owner who left 800 in fetid warehouse during hurricane jailed 

Blue Ash nursing home owner to plead guilty in $59M bank fraud scheme

Harold Sosna owns 8 nursing homes; 7 in Cincinnati

 

Photo by: Lot Tan

Seven Greater Cincinnati nursing homes owned by Premier Health Care Management are involved in legal dispute.

By: Paula Christian

CINCINNATI — A Blue Ash nursing home operator will plead guilty to bank fraud in a $59 million check-kiting scheme involving two banks, including Cincinnati-based First Financial Bank.

Harold Sosna, president of Premier Health Care Management, which owns and operates eight Ohio nursing homes including seven in the Cincinnati area, is scheduled to plead guilty on Oct. 20. The hearing will take place via teleconference before U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Horan of the Western District of Pennsylvania.

“We are going to accept responsibility,” said Sosna’s attorney, Herb Haas. “We are working with the government on mitigating circumstances.”

The maximum penalty for bank fraud is 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine. Prosecutors are also seeking forfeiture of the $59 million involved in the fraud scheme.

“Check kiting” is a form of check fraud which takes advantage of the float – the time between when a check is presented and when a bank receives the money. Check kiting falsely inflates the balance of a checking account in order to allow written checks that would otherwise bounce to clear, according to a bill of information filed by prosecutors on Sept. 30.

Prosecutors say the fraud scheme took place between May 15 and May 18, when Sosna allegedly defrauded Pennsylvania-based S&T Bank and Cincinnati-based First Financial by manipulating the balance in accounts to create the “false and fraudulent appearance that the defendant had sufficient legitimate available funds in various accounts, and to trick the banks into honoring checks drawn against accounts with insufficient funds,” according to the bill of information.

Sosna sent more than $118 million through banks, using 203 checks during that time, “which were unfunded amounts and were the equivalent of obtaining money from the banks without actual properly secured loans … As a result of the scheme, S&T Bank incurred a loss of $59,240,000,” according to the bill of information.

At least four banks have filed lawsuits against Sosna since June 1 to recoup tens of millions, accusing him of breach of contract and foreclosure. Other related entities and stakeholders in the private family-owned company that was founded in 1998 are also named as defendants.

Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas judges have appointed three separate receivers as custodians of the Premier nursing homes. Receivers are tasked with running daily operations and marketing the facilities for sale.

The facilities are Beechwood Terrace, Kenwood Terrace Health Care Center, Ivy Woods Care Center, Madeira Health Care Center, Pleasant Ridge Care Center and Southbrook Health Care Center in Springfield.

The judge appointed a receiver after an attorney for Huntington Bank, which is suing the Premier Health Care Management-related companies, raised concerns that the nursing homes were in imminent danger of collapse because assets were frozen as part of the court battle.

General Electric Credit Union is also suing Sosna and his related companies seeking foreclosure related to a $16 million construction loan to build a new nursing home in the village formerly known as Amelia. A judge appointed a receiver over the assets in that case.

 

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Blue Ash nursing home owner to plead guilty in $59M bank fraud scheme