FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEWS RELEASE
March 20, 2012
For More Information, contact:
Luther Strange
Joy Patterson (334) 242-7491
Alabama Attorney General
Suzanne Webb (334) 242-7351
Page 1 of 1
AG ANNOUNCES PRISON SENTENCE OF FORMER BOOKKEEPER
FOR THEFT OF $115,734 FROM WETUMPKA NURSING HOME
(MONTGOMERY)–Attorney General Luther Strange announced that a former
bookkeeper employed by a Wetumpka nursing home today was sentenced to prison for
the theft of $115,734 of residents’ funds from the facility.
Joseph James Feagin Jr., 33, of Wetumpka, was sentenced this morning by
Elmore County Circuit Judge John Bush to serve 18 months in the state penitentiary on
his conviction for first-degree theft of property. Feagin pleaded guilty on January 30,
2012.
An investigation conducted by the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control
Unit determined that, while Feagin was employed as a financial specialist at Wetumpka
Health and Rehabilitation, he accessed a number of resident accounts in the facility’s
computer database that had credit balances, and changed the payee information on the
accounts. Feagin then submitted refund requests on the accounts and had checks sent to
himself, his boyfriend and five other acquaintances. Nursing home officials
immediately contacted the Attorney General’s Medicaid fraud Control Unit and
refunded the money once the theft was discovered.
Judge Bush ordered Feagin’s sentence to run consecutive, following his
completion of a two-year prison term that he is currently serving for an unrelated theft
conviction in Montgomery County. Feagin will then serve three years of supervised
probation upon his release from prison. He was further ordered to pay full restitution to
the nursing home.
“I hope this stern sentence will serve as a deterrent to those who seek to prey
upon the elderly,” said Attorney General Strange. He praised the nursing home
management for its quick action once the theft was discovered, and commended the
Medicaid Fraud Control Unit for its investigation, and the Unit’s Director, Assistant
Attorney General Bruce Lieberman, who prosecuted this case.
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501 Washington Avenue * Montgomery, AL 36104 * (334) 242-7300
www.ago.alabama.gov
