Griffin: ‘Claiming Medicaid payments for providing care to their son when he was not in their custody is egregious and an affront to hardworking Arkansas taxpayers’

LITTLE ROCK – Following guilty pleas entered by Daniel Caudle, 36, and Misty Berdine, 33, both of Omaha, Arkansas, Attorney General Tim Griffin issued the following statement:

“Earlier this week, the defendants pleaded guilty to Medicaid Fraud, a Class A misdemeanor. Claiming Medicaid payments for providing care to their son when he was not in their custody is egregious and an affront to hardworking Arkansas taxpayers.

“I congratulate my office’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit on their diligence to secure these guilty pleas, particularly investigator Dane Pederson and Senior Assistant Attorney General Sharon Strong, who worked in conjunction with Sixth Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Will Jones.”

Berdine and Caudle were paid caregivers for their son through Elite Senior Care and billed Medicaid for payments during weeks when the child was not in their custody. They were each sentenced to 12 months’ probation, restitution in the amount of $3,526.87 and a fine in the amount of $1,763.44 plus court costs. Additionally, they will both be excluded from the State Medicaid Program for a period of time to be determined by the Office of Medicaid Inspector General.

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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 27 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.

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