A former senior-level employee at Juneau’s hospital was arrested early Thursday evening for allegedly stealing $108,000 from the medical institution. Bradley Grigg, former chief behavioral health officer at Bartlett Regional Hospital, was indicted in Juneau Superior Court on Thursday on two counts of first-degree theft.
Bartlett Regional Hospital is owned by the City and Borough of Juneau, which conducted an internal investigation that ultimately led to Thursday’s indictment.
“We became aware of this particular issue and problem through our internal whistleblowing process and we’re grateful to the employees that raised those concerns,” said Robert Barr, the deputy city manager.
Barr did not say when the internal investigation took place or how it was conducted.
“It was a fairly lengthy investigation and we provided the details and the results of that investigation to the district attorney for their use in the current active criminal case,” he said.
Barr said no other hospital employee was involved in the alleged theft.
The city has since put additional expenditure checks and balances into place at Bartlett. The hospital’s interim chief financial officer Bob Tyk is overseeing the changes.
“Examples of that sort of thing include that Mr. Tyk himself personally now reviews all credit card expenditures on a monthly basis and has put in a more robust process for the use of purchase orders as opposed to the use of credit cards,” Barr said.
Barr would not say more on Grigg’s arrest: “We are sensitive to the fact that it is an ongoing, active criminal case.”
Grigg left as part of a senior leadership shakeup at Juneau’s hospital that began in September 2021. The chief executive officer at the time, Rose Lawhorne, was fired after just six months in the position for having a relationship with a subordinate, as reported by KTOO. On the same day, Grigg also resigned.
More senior leadership members either resigned or left the hospital this past January. At that time, the city said Grigg’s expense reports were part of a criminal investigation.
Grigg was chief behavioral health officer at Bartlett for four years. Prior to that, Grigg was executive director for Juneau Youth Services for one year. According to KTOO, he left the nonprofit “under unclear circumstances.”
Grigg has also previously worked for the state’s Division of Behavioral Health for more than eight years and Juneau Alliance for Mental Health, Inc. for two years, according to his LinkedIn profile.
• Lisa Phu covers justice, education, and culture for the Alaska Beacon. Previously, she spent eight years as an award-winning journalist, reporting for the Juneau Empire, KTOO Public Media, KSTK, and Wrangell Sentinel. This article originally appeared online at alaskabeacon.com. Alaska Beacon, an affiliate of States Newsroom, is an independent, nonpartisan news organization focused on connecting Alaskans to their state government.
