Nursing Home Operator Avoids Prison Time After Carting Residents to a Warehouse During Hurricane Ida

There doesn’t appear to be any jail time for a Louisiana skilled nursing operator, who sent more than 800 elderly residents to wait out Hurricane Ida in a crowded, ill-equipped warehouse, resulting in the deaths of seven evacuees, five being classified as storm-related deaths.

Bob Dean Jr. was instead sentenced to three years of probation, and is required to pay more than $358,000 in restitution to the Louisiana state health department and more than $1 million as a monetary penalty, according to a report from AP News.

When Hurricane Ida hit the city in August 2021, Dean moved residents from his seven nursing homes to a warehouse, which deteriorated rapidly – ill and elderly bedridden people were found on mattresses on the floor.

Advertisement

Civil suits were filed against Dean’s nursing home business, and he was arrested on state charges in June 2022. By that point, he had already lost state licenses and federal funding for his facilities.

Dean pleaded no contest to eight counts of cruelty to the informed, two counts of obstruction of justice and five counts of Medicaid fraud, according to the office of State Attorney General Liz Murrill.

He was originally sentenced to 20 years in prison, but the sentences were deferred in favor of three years of probation by Judge Brian Abels. Murrill expressed frustration that Dean wasn’t given prison time.

Advertisement

“We asked specifically that he be sentenced to a minimum of 5 years in prison, and not be given only probation. 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,” Murrill said in a statement.

Companies featured in this article: