Iowan accused of running unlicensed hospital makes ‘sovereign citizen’ claim

An Iowa man criminally charged with running an unlicensed hospital in a rural area of Appanoose County is alleging in court that as “a living man” he is not under the jurisdiction of the state’s licensing boards.

In August 2026, Centerville’s Old Cabin Retreat, which had allegedly been operating as a hospital or medical clinic for six years without the required licensure, was temporarily shut down by a court order.

District Court Judge Crystal S. Cronk issued the temporary injunction barring the owners and affiliates of Old Cabin Retreat from continuing to engage in the unlicensed practice of medicine, dentistry and dietetics, ruling that they were “a danger to the public.”

The order was issued in response to a lawsuit initiated by three of Iowa’s health-related licensing boards. At the time, the owner of the Old Cabin Retreat,  36-year-old Eddie Gingerich of Moravia, was facing criminal charges of ongoing criminal conduct; money laundering; engaging in the practice of medicine, dietetics or dentistry without a license, and violating medical licensure laws and state laws regulating hospitals.

Gingerich has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges and after a recent continuance was granted the criminal case is now scheduled to go before a jury in February 2027.

Separate from the criminal case, the licensing boards’ civil case against Gingerich remains active, with the state now seeking a permanent injunction.

Gingerich, who is representing himself in the civil case, recently filed a series of court papers, one of which he labeled a “notice of liability” that advises the licensing boards they’ll soon receive from him what he calls a “bill for damages.”

His filings lack the traditional legal arguments made in civil cases and include an illustration of the Ten Commandments carved into stone tablets, lengthy passages from the Bible, and various arguments typically raised by people in the “sovereign citizen” movement, in which individuals claim that as “living people” they are not subject to the demands of the government and answer only to their interpretation of God’s law.

As part of his recent court filings, Gingerich asks for evidence of the state’s jurisdiction over him as “a living man” and he has included a copy of his own “declaration of sovereignty.” He has also provided the court with copies of the state’s filings in the case supplemented with his own handwritten notations referring to himself as “The Living Man Eddie.”

In response, the state has filed a motion seeking a default judgment in its favor, arguing Gingerich’s pleadings don’t amount to a “coherent answer” to the allegations against him and do not constitute a motion to dismiss.

“Gingerich faces serious allegations of unlicensed practice of medicine, dentistry, and dietetics, which have contributed to the death or serious illness of his ‘patients,’” lawyers for the state argue. “The content of Gingerich’s filings show that he is not only refusing to answer the (charges against him), but he is refusing to meaningfully participate in the judicial process entirely. Default judgment is the appropriate remedy.”

A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Nov. 30, 2026.

The Old Cabin Retreat has been in business since 2020, and is alleged to have promoted treatments for cancer and other ailments despite the fact that none of the staff are licensed medical professionals.

The retreat, which has been the subject of at least one death investigation in recent years, has allegedly advertised a “100% success rate with hiatal hernias” and seizures, as well as proven success with “many cancers, Lyme Disease, heart disease, stomach issues, prostate issues (and) autoimmune disorders.”

In court filings, Gingerich has indicated he never progressed in school past the eighth grade but, according to Appanoose County law enforcement, he also claims to have treated more than 70 cancer patients at the Old Cabin Retreat.

The current civil was initiated on July 27, 2026, when the Iowa Board of Medicine, Iowa Dental Board and Iowa Board of Dietetics asked the court to permanently bar Gingerich and two of his alleged business partners — Jake Gingerich and Dan Helmuth — from engaging in the practice of medicine, dentistry and dietetics.