Griffin: ‘My office will continue to protect taxpayers from fraud and the elderly from abuse’

LITTLE ROCK – Attorney General Tim Griffin today issued a statement announcing the arrests of three individuals following investigations by his office’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit:

“I congratulate the Special Agents in my Medicaid Fraud Control Unit on their recent arrests on separate abuse and Medicaid fraud cases. My office will continue to protect taxpayers from fraud and the elderly from abuse.

“I thank Special Agents Heath Nelson and Marcus Custer for their diligent investigations that led to these arrests. These cases will be prosecuted by my office’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit in cooperation with Sixth Judicial District Prosecutor Will Jones and 23rd Judicial District Prosecutor Chuck Graham.”

Hannah Christmas, 34, of Hamburg surrendered herself on a warrant for one count of Medicaid Fraud, a Class B Felony, on October 31. From August 2023 to April 2024, Christmas billed the Dermott, Hamburg, and Lakeside school districts $5,490.72 for physical therapy services that were never rendered. She was booked into the Pulaski County Jail on a $2,500 bond.

Ja’Layia J. McClendon, 28, of North Little Rock surrendered herself on a warrant for one count of Abuse of an Endangered or Impaired Person, a Class D Felony, on October 31. She was also booked into the Pulaski County Jail on a $2,000 bond. Two witnesses saw McClendon striking an 82-year-old female resident at a Little Rock assisted living facility suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease, leaving bruises on the resident’s face and forearm.

Trey Franks, 28, of Jacksonville was arrested October 31 by the Lonoke County Sheriff’s Department on a warrant for Abuse of an Endangered or Impaired Person, a Class C felony. From September to October 2023, five bank transfers totaling $1,086.26 were sent to Franks’ credit card account from a bank account of a woman residing in a Cabot long-term care facility. Franks was arrested in Little Rock and transported to the Lonoke County Jail.

For a printer-friendly version of this 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 has served as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps for more than 28 years and currently holds the rank of colonel. 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.

He is currently serving as the Commander of the 2d Legal Operations Detachment in New Orleans, Louisiana. His previous assignments include serving as the Commander of the 134th Legal Operations Detachment at Fort Liberty (née 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.

###