Bob Dean has been sentenced to three years of probation and must pay more than $1.3 million in restitution and penalties for his role in the disastrous emergency evacuation of nearly 850 residents from his seven Louisiana nursing homes during Hurricane Ida.
The 2021 emergency evacuation to a warehouse Dean owned near New Orleans left the residents of his nursing homes in a state of overcrowding and neglect. Seven died within days of the storm — with hundreds more rescued by state officials.
Dean pleaded no contest to 15 state criminal charges, including multiple counts each of cruelty to the infirmed, obstruction of justice and Medicaid fraud.
Judge Brian Abels of the 21st Judicial District Court of Louisiana initially sentenced Dean to 20 years of prison time, but deferred that sentence to probation. Abels cited Dean’s age (70), the size of his owed monetary penalties and his lack of a prior criminal record in the sentencing, according to ABC News.
In Louisiana, successfully completing a term of probation can lead to the conviction being removed from the convicted person’s record — except that the conviction can still be considered a first or prior offense in any future criminal cases.
Dean’s attorneys expressed happiness that Dean and the community can now move on from the three-year saga. State officials and lawyers, however, were not pleased with the relative severity of the sentence.
“Our prosecutors urged that Mr. Dean be held accountable for his conduct, which led to the deaths of numerous elderly individuals,” said Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill. “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.”
Dean is still potentially liable for civil penalties, and multiple class action lawsuits involving his former residents are currently in progress over his actions during Hurricane Ida. Dean already settled one such case for $12 million.
