Group home owner faces first criminal charge after fatal fire

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Nearly a year after one of Missouri's deadliest fires, relatives of some of the victims welcomed the first criminal charge against the owner of a residential care facility for the mentally ill and handicapped where 11 people died in a late-night blaze.

Robert DuPont, 62, could face a maximum term of life in prison if convicted on a federal charge of Medicaid fraud unsealed Monday for allegedly running five group homes in southwest Missouri illegally.

"I think it's fantastic. He needs to pay for what he did to people, not only my brother," said Donna Lawrence, 57, of St. Joseph.

Her brother Nathan Fisher, 52, was one of 10 patients and one caretaker who died in the Nov. 27 fire at Anderson Guest House in rural McDonald County.

The potential life sentence is based on federal statutes. Normally, the maximum term for health-care fraud under federal law is 10 years. But if the violation results in death, the defendant can be imprisoned for any term up to life.

Federal prosecutors allege DuPont secretly ran the group homes despite a felony conviction that barred him from operating health care facilities. In a court filing, assistant federal prosecutor Richard Monroe argued that a life sentence was possible "on account of the deaths of eleven persons as a result of this offense."

DuPont faces nine wrongful death lawsuits in civil court that allege he was negligent, but the fraud charge is the first criminal case to blame him for the fire.

State fire investigators ruled out arson but said the cause would remain undetermined because the building was totally gutted. They said faulty electrical wiring in the attic of the one-story home was the most likely cause.

DuPont has repeatedly denied any negligence and has disputed that attic wiring caused the fire.

DuPont's defense lawyer, Stuart Huffman of Springfield, said he has just taken on the case and has not reviewed the background yet. But he said his understanding is that the fire's cause was ruled an accident.

"It seems that the government is claiming that but for the Medicaid fraud there would not have been a fire. I think, on its face, the government will be hard pressed to prove that connection," Huffman wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

The Anderson fire was the deadliest in Missouri since a blaze in 1979 killed 25 at care home in Farmington. According to the National Fire Protection Association, the nation's deadliest fire in a facility for older adults since 1950 was at the Katie Jane Nursing Home in Warrenton, where 72 people were killed in 1957.

The federal charge is similar to the case made in a state lawsuit filed in December by Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon, alleging that Robert DuPont lied to state regulators to conceal that he ran the homes.

Nixon is seeking $689,491 in Medicaid payments made to Joplin River of Life Ministries, plus about $2.1 million in damages and an unspecified civil penalty for each fraudulent Medicaid billing made by the company.

Robert DuPont was barred by law from operating health care facilities after pleaded guilty in 2002 to Medicare and Medicaid billing fraud related to an earlier set of group homes.

Federal investigators say that before DuPont was sentenced in early 2003 to 21 months in prison, he created a new not-for-profit organization called Joplin River of Life Ministries, Inc. The ministry took formal control in May 2002 of DuPont's five group homes, including the one in Anderson.

LaVerne DuPont was listed as executive director of the ministry and remained in that post until the group disbanded after its homes were closed in December after the fire.

Federal prosecutors allege that Robert DuPont was really in control.

"In day to day operations of the facilities, Dupont makes unilateral hiring decisions, terminates employees, directs staffing levels, and unilaterally decides whether to accept potential residents referred by local hospitals," investigators said in an affidavit filed with the federal charge.

DuPont has repeatedly said he was just an employee of the ministry and did not run the homes.

The affidavit says Robert DuPont told investigators he had no control over the ministry and was an "uncompensated employee." Investigators said tax records showed DuPont received a salary from 2002 through 2005.

The DuPonts owned the property and homes that the ministry leased from them for a total of $12,000 a month. In a 2002 personal bankruptcy filing, the DuPonts said all but $600 a month of that lease payment went to pay bank loans.