AMITE — Former nursing home owner Bob Dean was sentenced to three years' probation Monday after the botched evacuation of his facilities during Hurricane Ida in 2021. A judge also entered $1.4 million in judgements against his firm.

Dean pleaded no contest to eight counts of cruelty to the infirmed, two counts of obstruction of justice, and five counts of Medicaid fraud. His company moved nursing home residents from various locations across southern Louisiana to a Tangipahoa Parish warehouse to ride out the storm. Fifteen residents ultimately died.

According to a federal complaint filed last year, Dean had four nursing homes pay "rent" to cover a hurricane evacuation center. In reality, that facility was an industrial warehouse that was crudely converted into a storm shelter in preparation for Hurricane Ida in August 2021. Fifteen of the 800 residents transferred to the warehouse died.

"After residents arrived, sanitation was not maintained, and the nursing homes’ staff did not prepare sufficient food, provide wound care, or ensure adequate medical care and support for the residents," the Department of Justice wrote in a statement.

Days after the storm, the Louisiana Department of Health staged a day-long rescue where it removed the evacuees, and the state revoked the licenses of Dean's nursing homes soon afterward. 

The attorney general's office had asked Judge Brian Abels send Dean to prison.

"We asked specifically that he be sentenced to a minimum of 5 years in prison," Attorney General Liz Murrill said. "I remain of the opinion that Dean should be serving prison time."

Abels ordered Dean to pay nearly $359,000 to the state Department of Health and imposed a civil penalty of $1.076 million to be paid to the state Justice Department.