Prosecutors say patients at a Springdale behavioral health unit were drugged, restrained and kept for unnecessary treatment from 2018 to 2022.
SPRINGDALE, AR — A former Arkansas State Medical Board chairman and seven former co-workers have been indicted on federal charges accusing them of holding psychiatric patients against their will, using powerful sedatives and threats to keep them confined at a Springdale hospital unit for years.
The indictment pushes a long-running Arkansas case into a new phase after earlier civil lawsuits, Medicaid fraud claims and a federal victim search focused attention on the Northwest Medical Center Behavioral Health Unit. Prosecutors say the group kept patients in the unit not because they needed the care, but because longer stays brought in money through government and private insurance reimbursements. The new charges place former psychiatrist Dr. Brian Hyatt at the center of the alleged scheme and widen the case to include nurses, technicians and an admissions worker who authorities say helped carry it out or helped hide it.
A federal grand jury returned the 28-page indictment on March 11, and it was made public on March 30. It names Hyatt, 53, along with advanced practice registered nurses Devon Talbert, 50, and Lindsey Hess Goucher, 40; former behavioral health unit director Miranda Newburn, 43; former admissions and assessment referral coordinator Robert Green, 35; and former mental health technicians Georgette “Gigi” Rice, 58, Owen Benjamin, 29, and Collyn Harlan, 31. Prosecutors say the conspiracy ran from 2018 until May 2022 at the Northwest Medical Center Behavioral Health Unit in Springdale. According to the charging document, the defendants used chemical restraints, force, intimidation and the loss of phone access to keep patients from leaving. Hyatt, who once led the state medical board, is also charged in a separate count with Talbert in a conspiracy to distribute Ativan without medical necessity. Federal authorities say the medications used in the alleged scheme included Haldol, Ativan and Thorazine.
The indictment describes a system in which patients were allegedly admitted, medicated and kept in the unit for reasons that had little to do with their actual condition. Prosecutors say some workers failed to intervene because they feared losing their jobs, while others are accused of taking a more direct role by carrying out orders, using threats or helping create records that did not match what patients were experiencing. The allegations go beyond poor treatment decisions. Authorities say the patients were confined so the unit could bill for services that were either not provided or not medically necessary. The Associated Press reported that at least one worker is accused of breaking a patient’s collarbone while restraining her to force unnecessary treatment. Court records made public so far do not answer every question, including how many patients federal investigators believe were victimized or how much money prosecutors say was tied to the alleged scheme. Attorneys for Hyatt and the other defendants were not listed in the initial reports after the indictment was unsealed.
The federal case grows out of a broader controversy that has followed Hyatt for more than three years. Scrutiny intensified in 2023, when state investigators and journalists began examining billing at the Springdale behavioral health unit. Arkansas officials later reached a $1.1 million Medicaid settlement with Northwest Arkansas Hospitals over payments connected to 246 Medicaid claims, though that settlement did not resolve the criminal allegations now filed in federal court. Hyatt stepped down as chairman of the Arkansas State Medical Board in March 2023 and resigned from the board in May of that year as the investigations widened. His medical license is now inactive. He has also faced a large wave of civil litigation from former patients who accused him of false imprisonment, abuse and fraud. Some business and health care reports have put the number of lawsuits at more than 200, showing how heavily the accusations have already reshaped his career before the new federal case reaches trial. Through that earlier period, Hyatt denied wrongdoing and said he would defend himself in court.
The case also gained momentum in 2025, when the FBI publicly asked for possible victims and witnesses to come forward. The bureau said it was investigating whether Hyatt and others unlawfully held patients at the behavioral health unit from Jan. 1, 2018, to June 1, 2022. That public call suggested investigators were still building out the scope of the case well before the indictment became public this week. Now prosecutors for the Western District of Arkansas, joined by a special assistant U.S. attorney from the Arkansas attorney general’s office, are handling the federal case. Count One, the kidnapping conspiracy charge, carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, up to five years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000 if there is a conviction. Count Two, the drug conspiracy charge involving Ativan and naming Hyatt and Talbert, carries a maximum of five years in prison, one year of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000. The indictment is an accusation, not a finding of guilt, and the defendants will have a chance to answer the charges in court.
The setting at the center of the case is a locked psychiatric unit in one of the fastest-growing corners of Arkansas, a place where families often turn in moments of crisis and where the people inside can have little control over the terms of their confinement. That is part of why the charges have drawn such strong reaction. They do not accuse the defendants merely of filing bad paperwork. They accuse medical workers of misusing the authority that comes with psychiatric care. Prosecutors say patients were denied phone privileges, threatened and medicated to make them easier to control. In earlier public statements tied to the investigation, authorities said health workers are expected to report abuse they witness, and the indictment says that duty was ignored. The Arkansas State Medical Board did not immediately respond to requests for comment after the indictment was announced, and a spokeswoman for the behavioral health unit also did not immediately respond in one of the follow-up reports. For former patients and families who have been pressing for action since 2023, the unsealing of the indictment marks the first time federal prosecutors have laid out the allegations in a single criminal case against Hyatt and former members of his team.
The defendants’ first federal court appearances and any plea entries will help show how quickly the case moves from accusation to litigation. Prosecutors may still add details through detention filings, discovery disputes or later hearings that spell out how they believe the alleged scheme worked day to day. Another open question is how the federal indictment will interact with Hyatt’s separate state Medicaid fraud case, which remains pending. The civil lawsuits filed by former patients are also likely to continue on their own track. For now, the public record gives a broad account of what prosecutors say happened between 2018 and 2022, but it leaves major factual disputes unresolved until the evidence is tested in court.
Author note: Last updated March 31, 2026.