JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Florida attorney Charles Benjamin Kaiser III has been reinstated to practice law in Missouri following a March 5 Missouri Supreme Court order after more than a decade's suspension.
The state Supreme Court's brief order followed Kaiser's petition for reinstatement. Kaiser, 61, of Pensacola, also was ordered to pay costs.
Kaiser was admitted to the bar in Missouri on Sept. 15, 1984, according to his profile at The Missouri Bar's website. A search of The Florida Bar's online database of attorneys did not turn up an attorney with his name.
In February 2003, Kaiser, then 45 and president and in-house counsel for American Healthcare Management, Inc., which managed Claywest House Health Care and other nursing homes, was sentenced following his conviction of failing to report patient abuse. Kaiser received a maximum sentence of one year in jail and a $1,000 fine after a St. Charles jury found him guilty of the misdemeanor charge.
Kaiser's conviction stemmed from 1998 and 1999 Missouri Division of Aging inspections of Claywest that turned up numerous life-threatening violations. Investigators found that multiple patients had been beaten by Claywest staff, including one patient who died in August 1999, following a second assault in as many months, according to a later U.S. Department of Health and Human Services decision in the matter.
The Missouri Division of Aging later recommended Claywest be fined of $360,000 over the numerous standards violations.
The verdict was affirmed by the Missouri Eastern District Court of Appeals in April 2004
In September 2004, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services excluded Kaiser from participating in Medicare, Medicaid and all other federal health care programs.
The state Supreme Court suspended Kaiser in November 2004.
In January 2007, Kaiser pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court of Missouri's Eastern District to making false statements in determining rights to receive benefits or payments under a federal health care program. In August 2007, the state Supreme Court extended Kaiser's suspension, saying no petition for reinstatement would be entertained until January 2010.