Bob Dean, courtesy of Tangipahoa Sheriff's Office June 22, 2022
70-year-old Bob Dean, a former nursing home owner, pleaded no contest on Monday to 15 criminal counts for the disastrous evacuation of residents from his facilities during Hurricane Ida in 2021. Dean has avoided jail time as a Tangipahoa Parish judge sentenced him to three years’ probation. Legal Analyst Franz Borghardt…
“I’m not terribly shocked but I think the judge’s decision is not unreasonable and in fact, for a non-violent crime or set of crimes this is generally what we would expect to see.”
As Hurricane Ida was racing towards southeast Louisiana Dean decided to send more than 800 residents from seven of his nursing homes to a warehouse not equipped to house that many people. Multiple people died, and coroners deemed five of the deaths were storm related.
Attorney General Liz Murrell expressed disappointment Dean did not get at least five years in jail. Borghardt says Judge Brian Abels’ reasoning could be because these were gross negligent crimes and didn’t show criminal intent…
“This is not “I wanted these residents to die. I thought about having them killed and I killed them.” This was always a gross deviation from standard of care. Which is still criminal in nature.”
Borghardt says Dean’s age could also be a factor in the sentence…
“The odds recidivism for this guy are probably very low.”
Dean has also been ordered to pay 358-thousand dollars in restitution to the Louisiana Department of Health and one million dollars in civil fines to the Department of Justice.
Dean pleaded guilty to eight felony counts of Cruelty to the infirmed, five counts of Medicaid fraud, and two counts of Obstruction of Justice
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