A man in Youngstown, Ohio was originally charged with four counts of rape, four counts of sexual battery, two counts of gross sexual imposition and one count of patient abuse. His total sentence is one year of probation and the loss of his nurse-aide certification.
Part of the reason for the paltry sentence is because the most severely injured victim, the victim who was the basis for the four rape and sexual battery charges, died in the three years since the initial charges were filed. It’s a result that is all too common in attacks against the extremely infirm and elderly.
The predictability of the woman’s demise makes me wonder why a deposition was not taken. In many cases, a sworn deposition or a video recording of a victim can be admissible in a courtroom.
Nursing home officials would want us to believe that there was nothing in the attacker’s background check, conversations with peers, or witnessed events that should have indicated to any other nursing home staff members that there was a serial rapist and psychopath working side-by-side with them.
If we want to bring safety and accountability to nursing home care, it seems likely that the criminal justice system is not going to be the place to start. Police don’t walk a nursing home beat like they do their neighborhoods. They only go when called.
The people who will need to take the lead in protecting nursing home residents from nursing home abuse or nursing home neglect are the staff and administrators of the facilities themselves. For far too long, the nursing homes have taken little or no action to police themselves.
Private institutions have tremendous power to reduce the amount of nursing home abuse and nursing home neglect, but currently there is no incentive to do so. To provide that incentive, families of victims who have been abused or neglected in nursing homes need to be vigilant in the pursuit of justice for their family members.
If you have a loved one in an Illinois nursing home, and you feel he or she has been the victim of nursing home abuse or nursing home neglect, contact my law offices for a free and confidential evaluation of your case. At the Law Offices of Barry G. Doyle, we have the experience and expertise to manage all aspects of your nursing home abuse case.