Birmingham Health Care CEO Jimmy Lacey, who died the day after Christmas, can be an "unindicted co-conspirator" in the fraud case against his boss even though Lacey is dead, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

Lacey's predecessor, Jonathan Dunning, is accused of diverting $14 million in federal funds aimed at caring for the homeless and poor. He has pleaded not guilty to 112 counts, including conspiracy.

Lacey worked for years under Dunning at Birmingham Health Care, a pioneering community health center that was one of the first of its kind in a federally funded nationwide program started in 1985.

Besides Lacey, the U.S. Attorney's Office has identified four other unindicted co-conspirators, according to a document filed in federal court by U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Jacobs Rothstein.

The document did not name the four.

Dunning's defense lawyers tried to get Lacey removed as a co-conspirator because he was not named earlier when the other four were named and that because he is dead, he cannot be cross-examined.

"Defendant asserts that because Lacey is no longer available for cross-examination" his rights to a fair trial would be violated, the judge wrote in the memorandum.

"Defendant is incorrect," she wrote.

Also the judge wrote that prosecutors believe "that Lacey made several false and misleading statements in front of the grand jury, which, the government believes suggests that he was more than an unwitting accomplice."

The judge wrote the defense has ample time to prepare to defend against Lacey's testimony as presented in FBI interviews and grand jury testimony.

The trial date in this case, moved back five times since Dunning's Feb. 2, 2015 arrest, is now scheduled for May 2.

Lacey, of Springville, was 64 when he died, according to his obituary in The Birmingham News. Cause of death was not noted.

The charges against Dunning include conspiracy, wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering in connection with his employment or involvement with Birmingham Health Care, Central Alabama Comprehensive Health in Tuskegee, a credit union and a string of for-profit businesses known as the Synergy Entities, according to the government.

Dunning has pleaded not guilty and is out on $50,000 bond.

Problems were first reported by AL.com and the Birmingham News in 2012 when it was revealed that Central Alabama Comprehensive Health and Birmingham Health Care paid more than $2 million to Dunning's private companies for contracting service, including while Dunning was CEO of the companies.

Dunning is the fourth person indicted in connection with the fraud investigation. The three others have pleaded guilty, including the CFO Terri Mollica.

Mollica also pleaded guilty to a related case and has been sentenced to 28 months in prison. She and the other defendants have not been sentenced in the alleged fraud scheme.