WHAS11 coverage

(WHAS11) - WHAS11 News has learned that Kentucky’s number two Nursing Home Regulator has been fired, because of an improper relationship with a nursing home operator.

The FBI and State Attorney General are now investigating allegations that Moses Young lives, perhaps rent free, in a house owned by a nursing home owner and may have influenced state investigations of the facility.

Moses Young was a high ranking official in the State Inspector General’s office.  The Assistant Director of Nursing Home Regulation, he has now been fired.  And now, criminal investigators are trying to figure out if Young was on-the-take and jeopardizing the care and safety of some of Kentucky’s most vulnerable citizens. 

The Garrard convalescent Home in Northern Kentucky has been the target of 23 complaints since 2004, alleging everything from abuse and neglect of residents to a bedbug problem.  But according to state records, every one of those complaints has been unsubstantiated, and dismissed by state regulators.

Kentucky’s Inspector General is worried that the relationship between the nursing home’s owner and the state’s number two nursing home regulator may have hurt those investigations, and the care of Garrard’s residents.

The Inspector General’s concern revolves around Young, whom she fired in May, 2008 from his post as Assistant Director in the division that oversees Kentucky Nursing Homes.  Young was fired for possible conflicts of interest and using his state post for financial gain.

An internal investigation showed, since 2005, Young has been living in the gated, Griffin Gate subdivision in Lexington, in a home owned by Ralph Stacey, Junior.  Stacey is the operator of Garrard Convalescent Home.

The Inspector General said, "He could not produce documentation related to rent payments by check or money order.  It’s hard to believe in this day and age that somebody’s obligated to pay rent in cash.”

But that’s how Young told investigators he was paying the $1,300 rent in cash.  But the questions about Young living in a house owned by a nursing home operator he regulates, wasn’t the most disturbing news to the Inspector General.

It was the phone calls.  427 phone calls to be exact, over an 18-month period from Moses Young’s state government cell phone, to Ralph Stacey, Junior often on the same day complaints were filed against Stacey’s nursing home or state investigators were headed there for a surprise inspection

Records of Young’s state cell phone use show that on May 5, 2005, at 3:03 p.m., the Office of Inspector General received a complaint about Garrard Convalescent Center.  Less than four hours later, Moses young called Stacey and they talked for 28 minutes.   

Bernie Vonderheide, who runs an advocacy group for nursing home residents, is shaking his head about the allegations.  He says, “It makes me worried and sad when I see nursing home people allegedly caught up in something like this.  Gee whiz!  You know, we’re talking about human beings under their care.”

The report from the Inspector General’s office has been turned over to the FBI and Kentucky’s Attorney General.

Since the internal investigation of Young’s relationship with Stacey began, the state has hit Garrard Convalescent Center with a Type A citation; which means the safety of residents was in jeopardy.  The state has also recommended more than a half million dollars in fines.

The Inspector General says there’s no proof Young altered any state records, or that he had conflicts of interests with any other nursing home providers.

Reached on his cell phone, Moses Young refused to comment except to say he plans to appeal his firing.

Nursing home owner, Ralph Stacey, Junior didn’t return several phone calls, and then told Whas11 that he’d be glad to talk.  He never did.

Web story published by Chris Wright