SEP 19, 2022

Attorney General Alan Wilson announces additional assault charge against Laurens caregiver

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) – South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced that his office’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (SCMFCU) has arrested Ursula Marie Davis on an additional charge related to a July 17, 2022 assault at NHC Laurens.

Davis, 53 years old, of Clinton, SC, was charged with Second Degree Assault and Battery {16-03-0600(D)(1)}. Davis was booked into the Laurens County Detention Center on September 19, 2022.

A joint investigation by the Laurens Police Department and the SCMFCU revealed that on or about July 17, 2022, while working as a caregiver at NHC Laurens, a residential care facility, Davis did unlawfully injure and caused moderate bodily injury to another person. Specifically, it is alleged that Davis placed the victim, a resident of the facility, in a headlock and struck the victim in the head, which resulted in the victim seeking medical attention. This new charge is supplemental to a previous count of ‘Abuse of a Vulnerable Adult’ that was made by the Laurens Police Department on August 2, 2022.

Both charges on Davis will be prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Office.

Second Degree Assault and Battery is a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, has a penalty of a fine of not more than $2,500, imprisonment of not more than three years, or both.

Pursuant to federal regulations, the SCMFCU has authority over Medicaid provider fraud; abuse and neglect of Medicaid beneficiaries in any setting; and the abuse, neglect, and exploitation of individuals residing in assisted living facilities or nursing homes. 

Attorney General Wilson stresses that all defendants are presumed innocent unless and until they are proven guilty in a court of law.

The SCMFCU receives 75 percent of its funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under a grant award totaling $1,927,636 for the 2022 Federal fiscal year. The remaining 25 percent, totaling $642,544 for FY 2022, is funded by South Carolina.

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