NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana businessman who sent more than 800 elderly residents from his seven nursing homes to a nursing home to survive Hurricane Ida in a crowded, poorly equipped warehouse, pleaded guilty Monday to 15 charges and was sentenced to three years probation.
Bob Dean Jr. must also pay more than $358,000 in restitution to the Department of Health and more than $1 million in fines, but state Attorney General Liz Murrill expressed frustration in a press release that Dean did not receive a prison sentence.
“We specifically asked that he receive a minimum of five years in prison, not just probation. I respect our justice system and that the judge ultimately has the authority to decide the appropriate sentence, but I continue to believe that Dean should serve a prison sentence,” she said.
Dean, 70, owned seven nursing homes in New Orleans and southeast Louisiana. Ida As Dean got closer, he moved hundreds of residents into a building in the town of Independence, about 70 miles (110 kilometers) northwest of New Orleans.
Authorities said conditions inside the warehouse quickly deteriorated after the powerful storm struck on Aug. 29, 2021. They found sick and elderly people bedridden on mattresses on the wet floor, some screaming for help, others lying in their own feces. Civil lawsuits against Dean’s Corporation said ceilings leaked and toilets overflowed in the sweltering warehouse, and food and water were in short supply.
Within days of the storm hitting, the state reported the deaths of seven of the evacuees, five of which were listed as storm-related.
By the time Dean was arrested on state charges in June 2022, he had lost his state licenses and federal funding for his nursing homes.
According to Murrill, Dean pleaded guilty to eight counts of cruelty to the sick, two counts of obstruction of justice and five counts of Medicaid fraud. Judge Brian Abels sentenced Dean to a total of 20 years in prison, but suspended the sentences in favor of three years of probation. The plea was filed in Tangipahoa, north of New Orleans.
Suspects who enter no defense do not plead guilty, but choose not to defend themselves against the charges. They can then be convicted and punished as if there had been a guilty plea.