Personal Injury Law

Teen Girls Charged With Abusing Nursing Home Residents

By Jane Akre

Two teenage girls charged with abusing and sexually humiliating nursing home patients with dementia and Alzheimer's disease will be arraigned on adult charges.

Brianna Broitzman, 19 and Ashton Larson, 18 will be in court January 21.  The two worked as nursing assistants at the Good Samaritan Society nursing home in Albert Lea, Minnesota, about 90 miles south of Minneapolis/St. Paul.

Each face 10 or more charges, all gross misdemeanors that range from mandated failure to report suspected abuse, to criminal abuse of a vulnerable adult, and assault in the fifth degree, according to the Albert Lea Tribune.

In addition to the two young women, four juveniles are facing charges for mandated failure to report suspected abuse.  All are now adults, but were not named because they were minors at the time of the alleged incidents.

In August, the Minnesota Department of Health issued a report, seven months after an investigation into the allegations was conducted by the Albert Lea Police Department, the Freeborn County Sheriff's Office and the Minnesota Department of Health.

The report concludes that four teenagers verbally, sexually, and emotionally assaulted 15 residents at the Albert Lea nursing home. The elderly residents were incapable of defending themselves as they suffer from dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Smoking Gun has the police report on its Web site. Warning- The report is very disturbing.

The girls admit to many of the allegations including spitting into the mouths of residents, touching their genitals to arouse them, tease them to make them mad and scream, then restrain them, hump the residents, and in one case, penetrated a man in the rectum.

"They thought it was funny," says a young witness. The disturbing events occurred while the younger teens looked on. One young employee says she didn't tell because she, "was scared" and, "didn't want to rat on my friends."

Eventually, one nursing assistant told authorities after she was dismissed for swearing in front of a patient. It was difficult to conduct interviews with the witnesses largely because of their mental conditions. Three have since died.

The largest employer in this town of about 19,000, once home to meat packers and manufacturing, is the Albert Lea Medical Center/Mayo with over 1,500 jobs.

The Albert Lea Tribune reports Broitzman and Larson face a year in jail face one year in jail and/or a payment of a fine of not more than $3,000 for each of the fifth-degree assault counts; not more than one year in jail and/or a $3,000 fine for each of the criminal abuse of a vulnerable adult counts; one year in jail and/or a $3,000 fine for each of the disorderly conduct counts; and 90 days in jail and/or a $1,000 fine for the mandated failure to report counts. #

Full post as published by InjuryBoard on December 03, 2008 (boomark / email).