Former Lexington sober living home worker convicted of federal fraud
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Federal jury finds Lexington peer support worker guilty in $2.57M urine-test fraud.
- Investigation found more than $62,750 in kickbacks and over 9,000 fake urine tests.
- Serenity Keepers received $9,077,260 from Medicaid; several defendants pleaded guilty.
A federal jury on Wednesday convicted a former employee of a Lexington sober living home of fraud after they say he received more than $60,000 in illegal kickbacks for ordering fraudulent urine drug tests.
Dashawn Dawkins, 34, of Lexington, was found guilty by a federal jury on counts of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and conspiracy to receive kickbacks, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Kentucky. Dawkins was a peer support specialist at Serenity Keepers, a sober living home in Lexington.
Sober living homes are places where people in recovery from substance use disorder can stay and receive services such as counseling. They often employ what are called peer support specialists to help residents.
According to the attorney’s office, Dawkins received more than $62,750 in illegal kickbacks for ordering fraudulent urine drug tests. The fake orders, which were obtained through a stolen identification number and forged signature of a nurse practitioner who used to work with Serenity Keepers, cost Kentucky Medicaid and Medicare a combined $2.57 million.
More than 9,000 urine drug tests were ordered in the scheme, according to the attorney’s office.
Dawkins was also a part of a scheme in which Serenity Keepers billed for fraudulent peer support services provided by Dawkins. The attorney’s office said every patient at the facility was billed for six hours of peer support services a day, but the services did not comply with Medicaid regulations, or were not provided at all.
Medicaid paid Serenity Keepers $9,077,260 for behavior health claims, the attorney’s office said.
Dawkins could spend 10 years in prison for the conviction. He is scheduled to be sentenced July 9, according to the attorney’s office.
Other defendants involved in the scheme
Dawkins is one of four people named in the original indictment, along with Delores Jordan, of Charlotte, North Carolina her boyfriend Jerome Davis, of Indianapolis; and Ernest Williams, of Lexington, according to the indictment filed in November 2024.
Dawkins is Jordan’s son. Jordan owned Serenity Keepers and started the scheme in 2019 by soliciting kickbacks to refer urine samples to drug testing laboratories that could be billed to Medicaid and Medicare.
The billing for the tests was fraudulent because the tests were not used for medical diagnosis or treatment, and Jordan knew that, according to the original complaint.
Jordan pleaded guilty to one count of charging a kickback conspiracy in November 2025. She is scheduled to be sentenced on April 23 and faces up to five years in prison.
Williams, a former a peer support specialist for the sober-living home, pleaded guilty one week after Jordan to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud. He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison.
Davis pleaded guilty to kickback conspiracy in December 2025, according to court records. He was sentenced March 19 to 12 months and one day in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
