George D. Houser is being sued by a Floyd County woman who says her father was neglected while living at the Moran Lake Convalescent Center, and neglect led to his death.
Houser said he filed a petition for bankruptcy earlier this week to save him from possible financial ruin, but Mike Prieto, an attorney for the plaintiff in the civil suit, said the bankruptcy petition is only a stall tactic.
Prieto requested the emergency bankruptcy hearing so that the issue would not delay proceedings in the civil suit.
Houser said he filed the petition for bankruptcy at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, more than eight hours before prosecutors finished showing the evidence in a case against him.
But according to Judge Mary Grace Diehl, the stamp on the petition said the document was filed at 2:47 p.m., more than five hours into Tuesday’s proceedings.
Diehl also noted that the document appeared to be a marked up version of bankruptcy papers filed by Houser earlier this year.
“This is the second bite of the apple; we shouldn’t be wasting tax resources this way,” said Martin Ochs, a U.S. Trustee for the Northern District of Georgia bankruptcy court.
Houser testified Thursday he needs the bankruptcy court’s protection.
Allowing the civil case to proceed in wake of the bankruptcy filing is “the equivalent of tossing me to the wolves,” Houser said.
The civil case will proceed today in Floyd County when jurors hear closing arguments from both prosecutors and Houser, who is representing himself. A verdict might be reached today.
Houser and his wife, Rhonda Houser, are both facing federal criminal charges after being accused of defrauding Medicaid and Medicare out of $30 million.
Houser’s three nursing homes, which also included Mount Berry Nursing Home and another in Brunswick, were closed in 2007 after the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services put Forum Medical Group on notice that it would no longer pay for care unless drastic improvements were made.
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