Published: October 19, 2026
ST. PAUL, Minn. — A Minnesota administrative law judge has recommended that the state lift its emergency suspension of three assisted living homes run by Sekou Hussein Dukuly’s company, finding the Minnesota Department of Health failed to prove residents faced imminent harm when it shut the homes in August.
In an Oct. 14 recommendation to Health Commissioner Brooke Cunningham, Administrative Law Judge Suzanne Todnem said the department “prematurely” suspended the licenses held by Golden Touch Health Care LLC and should rescind the suspension.
“It is not appropriate to strip a licensee of its options and then use the lack of exercising those options against it,” Todnem wrote.
The recommendation is not final, and it does not resolve the allegations behind the shutdown. Todnem made no findings on a separate fraud investigation by the Minnesota Department of Human Services, whose withhold of Medical Assistance payments to the company remains a matter for that agency. Separate notices of revocation issued by the Health Department also fall outside the case. Todnem upheld the department’s finding that the homes had no registered director after Aug. 12.
Both sides have 10 calendar days to file exceptions. The commissioner then has 10 business days to adopt, reject or modify the recommendation, and any party may appeal.
Dukuly is managing director of Liberia’s National Port Authority.
Golden Touch operates three licensed assisted living facilities in Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center serving residents with physical and mental health needs. Two of the licenses were issued in August 2021 and the third in April 2025. The department renewed all three earlier this year.
Investigators visited each facility Aug. 19, and the department suspended all three licenses for 90 days the same day. The company moved its 11 residents to other homes.
The department gave two reasons. As of Aug. 12, Dukuly was no longer registered with the state licensing board as director of record, and no replacement had been registered. The Human Services Department had also signaled it would withhold Medical Assistance payments, Minnesota’s Medicaid program, beginning Sept. 21, citing fraud allegations under investigation. Together, the Health Department argued, the two threatened continuity of care.
Golden Touch appealed, and its lawyers from the firm Greene Espel faced two assistant attorneys general before Todnem at an expedited hearing Oct. 1.
The law required the judge to decide whether the evidence showed violations posing an imminent risk to residents’ health and safety. Because the statute does not define “imminent,” she gave the word its ordinary meaning: likely to happen very soon.
The payment withhold was not set to take effect until 33 days after the suspension. Concerns arising from a future loss of revenue were “by definition” not imminent, Todnem wrote, and the company’s revenue had not changed. Staff did not know the withhold notices were coming until the investigator mentioned them during the visit, according to the findings.
The Human Services notices gave Golden Touch until Aug. 29 to decide whether to keep serving residents without Medical Assistance. By suspending the licenses first, the judge found, the Health Department took that choice away. Nurse supervisor Ishmael Komara testified that Dukuly had the financial means to keep the homes running for six months, and the judge found it reasonable that the company had not secured formal financing for homes the state had already closed.
On the director issue, Todnem found a violation and declined to treat the pending approval of a replacement as a formality. But a department official testified that when a missing registered director is a facility’s only problem, the department’s standard response is a correction order. The department did not explain why it used a suspension instead.
The day after Dukuly’s registration lapsed, registered nurse Tabitha Vickie Briggs, a licensed assisted living director, applied for a shared director license to lead all three homes. Sheikh Dukuly, the company’s coverage administrator and also a licensed director, was on site. Komara also holds a director license.
Todnem called “disingenuous” the department’s argument that staff had failed to present a plan to stay open for six months after payments stopped, because the company had received no withhold notice and the investigator never asked for such a plan.
She found the investigator spoke with Sheikh Dukuly, Briggs, one resident and three unlicensed staff members but did not ask how often directors were present or seek to speak with Sekou Dukuly. The record suggested officials did not treat the director issue as urgent until the Human Services notice arrived, she found.
Even taken together, Todnem concluded, the evidence did not establish imminent risk to residents. She noted that staff gave inconsistent answers about who was in charge, and that with no residents now in Golden Touch’s care, there was insufficient evidence to keep the suspension in place.
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