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TALLAHASSEE, FL - Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced that an owner of an unlicensed Hamilton County assisted living facility has been arrested on charges that she neglected the welfare and health of five disabled adults, operated the Jasper facility without a license, and engaged in the practice of nursing without a license. Gwendolyn Ann McClain, owner of Gwen’s Assisted Living, was arrested by the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit with assistance from the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office.

Investigators with the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit began investigating McClain, 47, after receiving information from the Florida Department of Children and Families, Adult Protective Services. The investigation revealed that the residents were living in a condemned and uninhabitable mobile home which had no running water, inadequate sources of heat and air conditioning, and no operational bathroom or kitchen. There was exposed wiring, no room doors for privacy, no operational telephone, and holes in the floors, walls and ceiling. McClain also administered medications to the residents and made medical decisions for them without any license, training or certification. Additionally, investigators determined McClain was taking the residents’ Supplemental Security Income and Social Security Disability checks as payment for her services.

McClain is charged with two counts of operating an assisted living facility without a license, five counts of neglect of an elderly or disabled adult, and one count of practicing nursing without a license, all third-degree felonies. If convicted, she faces up to 40 years in prison and a $40,000 fine. The case will be prosecuted by the State Attorney’s Office for the Third Judicial Circuit.