Ex-owner of ambulance service faces additional allegations

BANGOR – Embattled former Down East ambulance owner Dana McGovern and his service were named in a superseding indictment handed up Tuesday by a federal grand jury in Bangor.

The 214-count document contains the same number of charges as an initial indictment handed up six months ago against McGovern and McGovern’s Ambulance Service. The initial indictment, charging McGovern and his company with a widespread scheme to defraud Medicare and Medicaid out of close to $1 million, rocked Washington County where McGovern’s Ambulance Service was a key provider of emergency life support and transportation services and a staple of community life.

The superseding indictment replaces the first indictment. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, it tightens the language and contains additional allegations within some of the counts. For instance, the first 12 counts relate to charges of health care fraud and now list the charge that mileage was billed in excess of the distance traveled in some claims for transporting Medicare and Medicaid clients.

If convicted, McGovern faces the possibility of decades in prison and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.

On Dec. 15, 2000, McGovern pleaded innocent to the 214 counts in a hearing at U.S. District Court in Bangor.

He has been released on a $50,000 bond secured by a deed of trust to his family home in Washington County and reportedly is in Florida.

Meridian Mobile Health, an ambulance service based in Bangor, has served the Greater Calais area since McGovern’s service closed late last fall. In January, Gov. Angus King signed a bill into law that will allow communities in eastern Washington County to establish a regional ambulance service. Such a service is being created. Meridian will continue to serve the area until the regional service is established.

Also indicted Tuesday was Christopher S. Daly, 26, of Massachusetts on one count of Hobbs Act robbery, a federal robbery charge carrying stiffer penalties. Daly allegedly robbed Cameron’s Market at 313 Ohio St., Bangor, on March 11. In the process, he “used the threat of force and physical injury” against store employee Paul Woodcock, the indictment states. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both if convicted.

Daly also was indicted for robbery in early April by a Penobscot County grand jury. He remains in custody in Massachusetts on unrelated charges.

John Cecil Slater, 53, of Eddington was indicted and is charged with possession of a firearm by a felon. If convicted he faces a possible penalty of 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both. He is in custody on state charges.

Brenda A. Densmore, 37, of Milltown, New Brunswick, was indicted on two counts: fraudulent importation of prescription drugs into Maine from Canada without declaring the drugs to a U.S. Customs officer and making a fraudulent or fictitious statement to a U.S. Customs officer.