Police: Clinic workers imprisoned patient who couldn’t pay

UPDATE: Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter said the alleged victim recanted her testimony and all charges were dropped in January of 2009.

Staffers at a Duluth medical practice shuttered their office Friday amid charges of false imprisonment for allegedly locking a patient in a room when concerns arose about her ability to pay the bill.

Dr. John Drew Laurusonis and office assistants Leslie Ann York and Alexander Acquah of the Doctors Medical Center were indicted this week. The three face arraignment July 3 on the charge.

Police say Frances Bales, 36, of Duluth, was held against her will on Oct. 4, 2007, when she went to the clinic seeking treatment for arm pain.

An attorney for Laurusonis denied on Friday that the internal medicine practitioner did anything illegal.

“I’m really sad that a good man got indicted for not committing a crime,” said Lawrenceville-based attorney Richard Ryczek. “I think this will be resolved in his favor.”

Staffers at the clinic in a busy Duluth shopping center locked up Friday as news reporters approached. Calls to York and Acquah for comment were not returned.

Bales’ attorney, Joseph Fried, said Friday she was told initially that the visit would cost $98. Bales had been visiting from out-of-state and didn’t have health insurance, Fried said.

“They took her debit card and her driver’s license at the reception desk,” Fried said. “She figured with X-rays it might be a little more.”

Instead, after tests, Bales was charged $755, Fried said.

“She says, ‘I don’t have the money,’ ” Fried said. “They direct her to go into what they called their billing office.” For several hours, the staff refused to allow her to leave, locking her in for periods of time, Fried said. They had her log into her bank records from a computer while she was there, he said.

“They said, ‘Don’t you have anyone who loves you who can come and help you? Because you’re not leaving until this bill is paid,’ ” Fried said. “They made her feel like she was a criminal. She was made to feel like she couldn’t leave without something bad to happen to her.”

At one point, they allowed her to go to her truck to get a paycheck, but held her keys while she looked, unlocking the vehicle’s doors with the electronic key fob on the keychain, Fried said.

Fried described Bales’ personality as less assertive than other people. Laurusonis’s attorney Ryczek took that a step further, saying Bales could have left when she wanted.

“She did leave the room several times,” Ryczek said. During a warrant application hearing, Bales said that there was a door that didn’t have a lock, Ryczek said. Patients are told in advance that they are responsible for settling their bills before they leave, and that the clinic’s charges are reasonable and customary, Ryczek said.