The owner of Augusta personal care homes, including an allegedly unlicensed home where a severely disabled man died, pleaded not guilty Friday, March 18 to a new indictment.
Beverly Ann Webb, 62, had been indicted on a charge of murder in Richmond County Superior Court, but that case was dismissed when she was reindicted last month on the lesser charge of exploitation and intimidation of disabled or elderly adult.
Webb has been free on a $200,000 bond since 2019.
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According to prior news reports, Webb came to attention of the task force Crimes Against the Vulnerable and Elderly on Feb. 14, 2018, when a Gold Cross employee alerted authorities after taking a surgery patient home from a hospital and finding no one at his Sprucewood Drive house capable of taking care of the non-ambulatory patient.
There were four disabled adults living in the home at the time, according to news reports. Although the residents told CAVE members that they paid Webb hundreds of dollars for their care every month, the residence was not a licensed home. They also said Webb controlled their finances and kept their debit and food stamps cards. Her name was added to the bank account of one disabled resident, and paperwork was found indicating she had applied for survivor benefits of another resident who died, according to news reports.
CAVE members discovered one of the five people who died in the home from 2013 to 2018 was a disabled man who overdosed Sept. 17, 2017, within two weeks of Webb moving him from a licensed personal care home to the Sprucewood Drive home without his family’s knowledge, according to media reports. The man allegedly required around-the-clock care for all his needs, including his medication.
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The new indictment accuses Webb of neglecting the man by willfully depriving him of necessary medication management.
William Johnson of the state’s Attorney General’s office is prosecuting the case as a specially designated prosecutor. Augusta Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jared Williams recused himself and his office from Webb’s case because he represented Webb before he assumed office last year.
Sandy Hodson is a staff reporter covering courts for The Augusta Press. Reach her at sandy@theaugustapress.com.Â
