FORT WORTH, Texas (KNWA/KFTA) — Brian Hyatt, a former Rogers psychiatrist accused of holding patients against their will to defraud Medicaid in state and federal courts, is being held at a medical facility in Texas, according to jail records.
Hyatt, 53, who previously served as the director of the behavioral health unit at Northwest Medical Center in Springdale, is charged with two counts of violating the Medicaid Fraud Act in Pulaski County. He has pleaded not guilty to both charges.
In federal court, Hyatt is charged with conspiracy to commit kidnapping and conspiracy to distribute and dispense a controlled substance outside the scope of professional medical practice.
Federal officials say Hyatt and several other Northwest Medical Center staff members are accused of giving patients strong, mind-altering drugs, such as Haldol, Ativan and Thorazine, to keep them at the hospital’s behavioral health unit without medical justification…