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TALLAHASSEE, FL - Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced the arrest of a former staff member at Elevations Group Home, the fifth staff member to be arrested in connection to an ongoing investigation conducted by the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. Martello Brown allegedly struck a disabled resident of the group home while Brown was employed at the facility. He was arrested today by law enforcement with the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.

During the course of the investigation, Medicaid Fraud Control investigators interviewed a witness who stated Brown, 26, struck the disabled victim so violently that the victim almost fell to the floor. According to a witness, the victim, described as being slender in build and who is hearing- and speech- impaired, was easily overpowered by the larger Brown. The abuse was investigated by the Attorney General’s Patient, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation (PANE) team.

Brown is charged with abusing a disabled adult, a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years imprisonment and a $5,000 fine. He will be prosecuted by attorneys with the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and the State Attorney’s Office for the Eighth Judicial Circuit.