Louisiana Charges Hospital with Fraud and Neglect

November 11, 2004
An investigation conducted by the Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) has resulted in the arrests of several employees and the director of the G.B. Cooley Intermediate Care Facility for the Mentally Retarded in West Monroe, Louisiana.

Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) officials first alerted MFCU investigators iin March to possible instances of abuse and filing of false documents by employees of the G.B. Cooley facility.

MFCU investigators conducted an investigation which turned up evidence of employees filing false documents by claiming to have worked with patients when in fact they did not or were not present at the times stated in their progress logs.

Arrested were, Margaret Brown Harris, Tonya Lashawn Harris, Marquita Karlis Pollard and Valentia Chisley Smith, all care takers in the Independent Living program at the G.B. Cooley facility. All are charged with one count each of Medicaid Fraud and one count each of Filing False Public Records.

MFCU investigators also arrested the director of the G.B. Cooley facility, Gloria Barfield, who is charged with one count of Cruelty to the Infirm. Barfield is alleged to have allowed a mentally handicapped patient who also was self-abusive and schizophrenic to reside off campus in the Independent Living program when the patient needed 24 hour a day care and one-on-one supervision.

Barfield is alleged to have done this despite committee recommendations that the patient live on campus. The patient injured himself on a number of occasions while a resident in the Independent Living program.

Roxanne Givens, former support personnel at the facility, was also arrested on one count of Cruelty to the Infirm. Givens is alleged to have hit a mentally disabled patient with a pipe several times. The patient also suffers from a bipolar disorder and Tourette's syndrome.

"We will continue to vigorously protect the rights of our elderly and disabled citizens and we will continue looking into all allegations of abuse or Medicaid Fraud," Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr. said.

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