English
French
Spanish
VietnameseGriffin: ‘Protecting our vulnerable population from fraud and exploitation will continue to be one of the priorities for my office’
LITTLE ROCK – Attorney General Tim Griffin today issued the following statement announcing two fraud and exploitation arrests that resulted from investigations by his office’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit:
“On April 8, Kimberly Pate, 55, of Jessieville was arrested by the Garland County Sheriff’s Office on a warrant for exploitation of a vulnerable person, a Class B Felony. Pate used her power of attorney status to access money in her mother’s account. She also used her power of attorney status to facilitate the sale of a home that she and her mother shared ownership of and took those funds from her mother’s account. The mother was evicted from two long-term care facilities after Pate neglected to pay those bills. Pate is currently being held in the Garland County Detention Center.
“On April 9, Judy Osment, 59, of Trumann was arrested by the Poinsett County Sheriff’s Office on the charge of abuse of an endangered or impaired person, a Class B Felony. Osment had her mother, who was suffering from dementia, add her to her mother’s bank accounts, where she removed money totaling more than $100,000. Osment is currently being held at the Poinsett County Detention Center.
‘Protecting our vulnerable population from fraud and exploitation will continue to be one of the priorities for my office. I want to recognize the outstanding work of my office’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) for their unwavering dedication to protecting Arkansans. I specifically want to thank Special Agent Marcus Custer, Assistant Attorney General Gabby Davis-Jones, Managing Deputy Prosecuting Attorney for the Poinsett County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office Jimmy Turnbow, Prosecuting Attorney for the Second Judicial District Sonia Hagood, Prosecuting Attorney for the Eighteenth Judicial District East Michelle Lawrence, the Trumann Police Department, the Garland County Sheriff’s Office, and the Poinsett County Sheriff’s Office.”
The Arkansas MFCU receives 75% of its funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under a grant totaling $4,685,736 for the Federal fiscal year 2025, of which $3,514,304 is federally funded. The remaining 25%, totaling $1,171,432 for State Fiscal Year 2025, is funded by Arkansas General Revenue.
To download a PDF of the release, click here.
About Attorney General Tim Griffin
Tim Griffin was sworn in as the 57th Attorney General of Arkansas on January 10, 2023, having previously served as the state’s 20th Lieutenant Governor from 2015-2023. From 2011-2015, Griffin served as the 24th representative of Arkansas’s Second Congressional District, where he served on the House Committee on Ways and Means, House Armed Services Committee, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, House Committee on Ethics and House Committee on the Judiciary while also serving as a Deputy Whip for the Majority.
Griffin is currently an officer in the Arkansas Army National Guard and holds the rank of colonel. Griffin served as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps for more than 28 years. In 2005, Griffin was mobilized to active duty as an Army prosecutor at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and served with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) in Mosul, Iraq.
His previous assignments include serving as the Commander of the 2d Legal Operations Detachment in New Orleans, Louisiana; the Commander of the 134th Legal Operations Detachment at Fort Bragg, North Carolina; and as a Senior Legislative Advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness at the Pentagon. Griffin earned a master’s degree in strategic studies as a Distinguished Honor Graduate from the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.
Griffin also served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, and Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Political Affairs for President George W. Bush; Special Assistant to Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice; Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Arkansas; Senior Investigative Counsel, Government Reform and Oversight Committee, U.S. House of Representatives; and Associate Independent Counsel, Office of Independent Counsel David M. Barrett, In re: HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros.
Griffin is a graduate of Magnolia High School, Hendrix College in Conway, and Tulane Law School in New Orleans. He attended graduate school at Oxford University. He is admitted to practice law in Arkansas (active) and Louisiana (inactive). Griffin lives in Little Rock with his wife, Elizabeth, a Camden native, and their three children.
###
