LITTLE ROCK. Attorney General Tim Griffin said Thursday that special agents with the Arkansas Medicaid Fraud Control Unit arrested seven people in separate investigations during one week in September. The cases produced five felony charges and two misdemeanor charges. Prosecutors allege Medicaid fraud, abuse of vulnerable adults, and failure to report abuse.
The arrests happened between September 11 and September 18 in Conway, Booneville, Little Rock, Arkadelphia, and Beebe. Officials say these were not one coordinated ring. They were separate cases that reached charging decisions around the same time. The seven people have been charged.
They have not been convicted. Griffin said the unit is pursuing people accused of billing Medicaid for care that was not delivered as claimed and people accused of harming residents in publicly funded facilities. Attorneys from the attorney general’s office plan to prosecute the cases with local prosecutors. The Office of the Medicaid Inspector General referred one billing case.
The Booneville case is proceeding with 15th Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Tom Tatum II. The unit receives 75 percent of its funding from a federal grant administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. For federal fiscal year 2026 that grant totals $4,781,516, including $3,586,140 in federal money.
Arkansas general revenue covers the remaining 25 percent, or $1,195,376 for state fiscal year 2026. Sharon Whitaker, 59, of Conway, was arrested September 11 and charged with Medicaid fraud, a Class B felony. Investigators allege she submitted claims totaling $6,850.56 for personal care services for clients living in an apartment complex she managed. Officials say those claims covered hours that overlapped her scheduled work as property manager.
The allegation is that she billed Medicaid for hands on care while already being paid for a different job. The public announcement does not name the agency that submitted the claims. John Weis, 21, of Booneville, was also arrested September 11 and charged with abuse of a vulnerable person, a Class D felony. Authorities say he worked as a certified nursing assistant at the Booneville Human Development Center and purposely caused injury to a resident.
The Booneville center is a state operated intermediate care facility for people with developmental or intellectual disabilities. The Department of Human Services has described it as a 138 bed campus. Facilities of that type can receive Medicaid payment for residential, medical, and habilitation services. Court papers cited in local reporting describe an incident on August 22, 2025.
An arrest affidavit says video shows Weis grabbing a resident identified as D.B. from behind and dragging the resident into a shower room after the resident refused a shower. Staff later documented a black eye. The resident later told multiple employees that Weis hit him in the face while forcing him into the shower. Special Agent Laura Glover interviewed Weis months later at the Booneville Police Department.
According to the affidavit account, Weis said the video “looks rough.” The facility later fired Weis and another certified nursing assistant who was present, Anthony Griffith. Griffith was not among the seven people announced Thursday. Weis was booked into the Logan County Detention Center on September 11 and released September 14 on a $10,000 bond.
Those details come from charging papers and remain unproven. Shane Phillips, 38, of Little Rock, was arrested September 17 and charged with Medicaid fraud, a Class A felony, the most serious fraud count in the group. Investigators allege he submitted claims totaling $88,104.96 for personal care and attendant care. Officials say some of those claims covered periods when his client was an inpatient in a hospital and periods when Phillips was working for other employers.
Medicaid generally does not pay a community caregiver for in home or attendant services while a beneficiary is already receiving hospital care. Time records from a second job can also undercut billed hours. The Medicaid Inspector General referred the case. The announcement describes Phillips as a personal care and attendant care provider whose work was billed to Medicaid.
It does not name the provider agency. Three employees tied to the Arkadelphia Human Development Center were arrested September 17 after an alleged assault on a resident. Gregory Davell Clayborn, 33, of Arkadelphia, is charged with abuse of an adult, a Class D felony. Investigators allege he purposefully and unnecessarily slapped a resident, causing substantial physical pain and mental anguish.
Shamirrah Desha Childs, 25, and Debbie Kay Thomas, 61, both of Arkadelphia, each face a Class B misdemeanor charge of failure to report the abuse of an adult. Authorities say both were caregivers at the center and did not report the alleged slap. The Arkadelphia Human Development Center is a state run intermediate care facility for people with intellectual or developmental disabilities. State records list the campus at 1 Prator Drive and show it as a Medicaid certified facility.
Clayborn, Childs, and Thomas are accused in their roles as facility staff. The announcement does not say whether the alleged slap was recorded on video and does not identify the resident by name. Michael Bodine, 33, of Beebe, was arrested September 18 and charged with Medicaid fraud, a Class C felony. Investigators say he submitted more than 90 claims totaling $4,725.76 while billing for services to two different Medicaid beneficiaries at the same time.
Personal care and attendant care are time based services. A single caregiver generally cannot deliver two separate hours of care in two places at once. The public announcement does not name Bodine’s employer. The three fraud cases describe different versions of overlapping time.
Whitaker is accused of billing personal care during hours already committed to property management. Phillips is accused of billing personal care and attendant care while a client was hospitalized and while he was working other jobs. Bodine is accused of billing two beneficiaries for the same windows of time. The alleged amounts are $6,850.56, $88,104.96, and $4,725.76.
Added together, the publicly identified claims total $99,681.28. Those figures are amounts investigators say were billed. They are not court findings. The abuse cases do not turn on invoices.
They turn on the treatment of residents inside two state human development centers that receive Medicaid reimbursement. Weis is accused of using force on a Booneville resident and causing injury. Clayborn is accused of slapping an Arkadelphia resident. Childs and Thomas are accused of staying silent after that alleged assault.
Special agents inside the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit investigated all seven cases. Federal rules give that unit two jobs: prosecute provider fraud against Medicaid and investigate abuse, neglect, and exploitation of patients in Medicaid funded facilities. Each defendant can contest the charges in court.
