THE FALLOUT

Nursing Home Owner Who Botched Hurricane Ida Evacuation Faces Charges

Bob Dean was arrested on multiple felony charges, including cruelty to persons with infirmities, Medicaid fraud, and obstruction of justice.

A man who botched the evacuation of his seven nursing homes during Hurricane Ida last August has been arrested for multiple crimes, WWL TV reports. Bob Dean, 68, moved more than 800 residents to a warehouse during the deadly hurricane, but did not properly treat them or space them apart, increasing the vulnerable group’s chances of contracting COVID-19, according to the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office. Seven nursing home residents who were taken to the warehouse ultimately died, with five of those deaths being deemed “storm related” by the state. Dean has now been arrested on multiple felony counts for cruelty to persons with infirmities, Medicaid fraud, and obstruction of justice, authorities said. The investigation into his evacuation found that Dean refused to move his residents out of the warehouse in the hurricane’s aftermath, charged Medicaid for care he was not giving residents and attempted to block Louisiana Health Department officials from their investigation. Dean, who has already been sued several times, lost his state licenses for the homes he owned soon after the poor evacuation and lost federal funding in May.