By Susan Redden
sredden@joplinglobe.com
Rita Hunter, former Jasper County public administrator, has been named in a wrongful death lawsuit filed in connection with the fatal fire in November 2006 at the Anderson Guest House group home.
The fire, which killed 10 group home residents and one worker, has spawned a series of lawsuits, plus federal criminal charges against owners of the group home alleging Medicaid fraud.
This suit filed Wednesday in McDonald County Circuit Court is the first to name Hunter in connection with the group home blaze. Mary Frances Joyce, the mother of Isaiah Lee Joyce, contends that her son’s death was the result of Hunter’s “careless and negligent” actions because she failed to place Joyce “in a facility that was maintained in a manner that allowed for its safe use by residents.” Hunter is named in the suit individually and in her capacity as public administrator.
Isaiah Joyce, 25, was a ward of the public administrator’s office and had been placed in the group home for the mentally disabled.
Civil Suit brought against 13 in Nursing Home Fire Case -
Other defendants
The suit also names Joplin River of Life Ministries, owners Robert and LaVerne DuPont, Shirley Brannon, group home administrator, and officers of the Missouri Department of Health and Social Services.
“We named her (Hunter) because she was the guardian and conservator of Isaiah, and was responsible for making decisions on his behalf. We believe she knew what was going on there and failed to have his interest in mind and failed to take him out of the facility,” said Eryn Peddicord, the Lee’s Summit, Mo., attorney who filed the suit.
Globe efforts to reach Hunter for comment on Friday were unsuccessful.
Timing of suit
Peddicord noted that Friday was the third anniversary of the fire and that Missouri has a three-year statute of limitations on filing wrongful death lawsuits.
“We filed it Wednesday because we wanted to be safe and get it filed before the holiday weekend,” she said.
Seven other lawsuits have been filed against the DuPonts and the state on behalf of former group home residents or their families. Three of those plaintiffs — Marian Ober, Earl Story and William Gandy — also were wards of the Jasper County public administrator’s office. Hunter is not named as a defendant in those cases, which are pending in Newton County Circuit Court on a change of venue from McDonald County.
Hunter is the subject of a number of lawsuits filed by current and former wards of the public administrator’s office. She also is the subject of a federal investigation into operations of the office during her tenure from 2004 to 2008. The probe was started after Hunter emptied filing cabinets and the office computer system of wards’ files and other information before she left office.
The exact cause of the group home fire was never determined, although it was ruled accidental and thought to be electrical in origin.
The Joyce lawsuit contends the owners and administrator of the home, among other things, failed to maintain the home in a manner that allowed for its safe use by residents, failed to fix known maintenance problems that caused the fire, failed to maintain a properly functioning furnace and electrical system, and failed to have a properly functioning fire sprinkler system.
It also names state agencies and workers, and other unknown defendants, contending they were required to conduct inspections that showed the home was operating in a legal and safe manner.
Other charges
Both the DuPonts face multiple criminal charges in federal court in connection with alleged Medicaid fraud. Robert DuPont also faces charges of health care fraud and money laundering, and LaVerne DuPont has been charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud and one count of health care fraud.
