MACHIAS – A Washington County Superior Court justice ordered the sale of the former McGovern Ambulance facility on South Lubec Road, with the proceeds from the sale to be used to pay off all liens against the property.

In April, First National Bank of Bar Harbor, through its attorney, David Fletcher of Calais, filed a civil action against Dana E. McGovern and his business associate John R. Wentworth, both of Port Charlotte, Fla. The two men jointly owned the Lubec property. For several years it housed Lubec’s contingent of McGovern Ambulance Service.

Last year, McGovern, whose ambulance company had served residents of Washington County for more than two decades, appeared in U.S. District Court and pleaded innocent to 214 federal counts charging him with, among other things, defrauding Medicare and Medicaid health benefit programs out of nearly $1 million. Wentworth, who was not a partner in the ambulance service, was not charged.

The wide-ranging indictment charged McGovern with health care fraud, money laundering, and obstruction of two federal audits. If McGovern is convicted, the federal government will seek forfeiture of McGovern’s personal assets as well as those of his business. He also faces the possibility of a prison term and $1 million in fines.

The indictment rocked Down East Maine, where the ambulance service had become a staple of community life.

McGovern started working for the service as a teen-ager, driving an ambulance part time. In 1980, he began working full time for the agency, then owned by Gene Newell. He bought the business in 1991. The service once employed 150 people.

In 1998, Wentworth and McGovern purchased the Lubec property and built a building on it. But shortly after McGovern’s problems surfaced, he defaulted on the loan payments.

As of April of this year, he and Wentworth owed the bank $26,537 in principal, interest and attorney fees. The bank requested a foreclosure and sale of the property.

In his answer to the complaint, Wentworth, through his attorney Brett Baber of Bangor, claimed that McGovern was the managing partner. He said McGovern had failed to provide an accounting to him. Wentworth asked the court to enter judgment in his favor against McGovern and require him to “contribute equally” to any losses.

In addition to the bank’s foreclosure action, Ellsworth Builders Supply Inc. filed notice that it has a $3,670 lien against the Lubec property for materials it furnished.

In September, the Superior Court justice ordered the property to be sold and the proceeds disbursed first to the bank for all its expenses including attorney fees, and then to Ellsworth Building Supply Inc.

The justice also ruled that if the sale price were not enough to cover the losses, judgment for the excess should be entered against McGovern and Wentworth.