Head Nurse to Stand Trial in Connection With Woman’s Death at Cameron Park Care Facility

The former head nurse at a Placerville nursing home will stand trial for felony elder abuse in connection with the 2008 death of a 77-year-old Cameron Park woman, an El Dorado County judge ruled Tuesday.

More than 4 1/2 years after the death of Johnnie Esco, Judge Daniel B. Proud found there was sufficient evidence to move forward in the criminal case again Donna Darlene Palmer, 58, a registered nurse.

Palmer, who was then director of nursing at the El Dorado Care Center, was one of two nurses at the facility charged criminally by the California attorney general. The second nurse, 39-year-old Rebecca Smith, negotiated a deal earlier this month with the state.

Smith, a licensed vocational nurse, agreed to plead no contest to felony elder abuse in exchange for a possible suspended jail term and her willingness to help prosecutors in their pursuit of Palmer.

The attorney general contends that both nurses failed to perform their duties or to adequately supervise staff in caring for Esco, who died a painful and unnecessary death – despite a devoted family that surrounded her daily, according to testimony and state documents.

Full Article and Source:
Head Nurse to Stand Trial in Connection with Woman’s Death at Cameron Park Care Facility

AZ Couple Charged With Abusing 3 Vulnerable Adults

A Tucson couple was arrested Tuesday on felony charges alleging they physically abused three vulnerable adults who were living with them.

The Arizona Attorney General’s Office began investigating Pamela Gertrude Rasley, 61, and Edgar Lavelle Rasley, 65, when neighbors called 911 to report two mentally challenged people were forced to spend their days outside, regardless of the weather, said Assistant Arizona Attorney General Jesse Delaney.
An investigation revealed the man and the woman were not allowed to eat inside the home or use the bathroom facilities, Delaney said. They were permitted inside only to sleep.
In addition, investigators learned a blind relative of the couple was being physically abused, Delaney said.
The Rasleys are each charged with three counts of vulnerable adult abuse/domestic violence, which is punishable by probation or a prison sentence of up to 3 3/4 years.
The criminal complaint alleges the couple placed the victims in a situation where their health was endangered from Sept. 1, 2010, through Aug. 6.
All three alleged victims are now living in a safe environment, Delaney said.

A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for Dec. 10.

Full Article and Source:
Couple Charged With Abusing 3 Vulnerable Adults

Improvement of Illinois Nursing Facility

Responding to published reports of substandard care this summer, state regulators and law-enforcement authorities visited the former Maple Ridge Care Centre on Tuesday, but found no major deficiencies and concluded that care at the 126-bed nursing home may have improved.

“We found a completely different facility than was portrayed in the articles,” Cara Smith, deputy chief of staff for Attorney General Lisa Madigan, told The State Journal-Register.”

Officials from Madigan’s office, the Illinois Department of Public Health and state and local police were among 16 people who spent two to three hours at the nursing home as part of Madigan’s statewide Operation Guardian nursing-home compliance initiative.

“The facility itself appeared to be very clean and orderly,” Smith said. “There were a lot of staff attending to residents. It appeared to be an entirely different environment, which is fantastic.”

Full Article and Source:
Officials Approve of Care During Visit to Lincoln Nursing Home

KS Former AG Phill Kline Discipline Case Goes Before Kansas Supreme Court

Lawyers for former Attorney General Phill Kline and for the disciplinary administrator’s office will have one hour on Thursday to persuade a Kansas Supreme Court panel what disciplinary path to take with Kline.

Attorneys are getting more time during the hearing. Normally, each side gets 15 minutes, a total of 30 minutes to hear the case. In the Kline case, each side will get double that — 30 minutes per side.

It is unknown when the Supreme Court panel will rule on the Kline case, Kansas Supreme Court spokesman Ron Keefover said Friday.

“It’s up to them,” Keefover said. It could be longer because there are five judges who routinely aren’t on the court, he said.

Keefover referred to Kansas Court of Appeals Judges Henry W. Green and Karen M. Arnold-Burger and Chief Judge Edward E. Bouker of the 23rd judicial district, Chief Judge Bruce T. Gatterman of the 24th judicial district, and Douglas County District Court Judge Michael J. Malone.

The five replaced Supreme Court justices who recused themselves from hearing the Kline disciplinary case.

It isn’t uncommon for disciplinary cases to be heard in the Kansas Supreme Court, Keefover said. There usually are two disciplinary cases on every court docket.

The unusual part of the Kline case are the recusal requests by Kline and the hearing has its own special setting on Thursday rather than being included in the regular docket.

“Attorney discipline cases become public once a formal complaint is filed,” Keefover said. “The hearing before the board of discipline is open. Then if there is a finding of a violation, the case then comes before the court. Attorneys file briefs, and they have oral argument.”

Kline opposes findings that he violated ethics rules governing the conduct of lawyers.

Full Article and Source:
Kline Disciplinary Case Goes Before Kansas Supreme Court

CANHR Releases ‘Operation Guardians’ Report

Untreated bed sores and infections, residents left for hours lying in their own waste, a resident with maggots in a festering rectal wound. Despite a generation’s worth of state and federal laws to guarantee a satisfactory standard of care in California nursing homes, an alarming number of facilities are failing to deliver decent humane care to their residents. This is the takeaway from CANHR’s hair-raising review of fourteen reports from California’s Operation Guardians, a project of the state Department of Justice’s Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse. The reports reveal a shameful state of affairs in the reviewed nursing homes that is fostered, in part, by a lack of statewide enforcement from the Department of Public Health (DPH).

Operation Guardians began in 2000 to conduct surprise, on-site inspections of California nursing homes in an effort to protect residents and improve care for elderly and dependent adult residents. (See Operation Guardians description) While the project has scaled back its number of inspections, it still manages to inspect about one new nursing home each month. Each inspection results in a report detailing the facility’s compliance with basic sanitation and quality of care standards. The reports are sent to DPH so it can conduct an independent investigation and issue appropriate enforcement actions. The reports are not made available to the public. CANHR made a Public Records Act request to obtain all reports issued from January 1, 2010 through March 7, 2012 and has subsequently posted the reports to its website. It is believed that CANHR is the first organization to publicly reveal the Operation Guardians reports.

Each of the nursing homes listed below were investigated by Operation Guardians staff between January 1, 2010 and March 7, 2012. If you click on the facility’s name, you will see a summary of the findings as well as a link to the full report and, where available, a supplemental physician’s report.

Bakersfield Healthcare Center – Bakersfield

Braswell’s Hampton Manor – Yucaipa

Desert Knolls Convalescent Hospital – Victorville

Evergreen Healthcare Centers of Vallejo – Springs Road (aka. Springs Road Healthcare) – Vallejo

Florin Healthcare Center – Sacramento

Golden Cross Health Care – Pasadena

Motion Picture and Television Fund Skilled Nursing Units – Woodland Hills

Plott Nursing Home – Ontario

Roseville Point Health & Wellness Center – Roseville

Sunrise Convalescent Hospital – Pasadena

Tarzana Health and Rehabilitation Center – Tarzana

Windsor Redding Care Center – Windsor

Winsor House Care Center (aka. Orchard Post Acute Care) – Vacaville

Yuba Skilled Nursing Center – Yuba City

Source:
Operation Guardians – Executive Summary

Press Release: Canhr Releases Attorney General Reports Showing Rampant Abuse and Neglect in Fourteen California Nursing Homes

Attorney General’s Description of Operation Guardians

California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform – CANHR

Florida AG: Woman Charged for Exploiting Disabled

An Alachua County woman, Zonia Cooper, was arrested after an investigation by the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the state attorney’s office, alleging she exploited 11 disabled adults.

The Medicaid Fraud Control Unit is dedicated to protecting elderly and disabled adults in health-care facilities throughout Florida, and we will not allow these individuals to be exploited or abused,” Attorney General Pam Bondi stated in a release.

Cooper, 44, was the former group home manager at Arc of Alachua Group Home, according to a release from the attorney general’s office.

According to the investigation, Cooper misappropriated more than $1,300 from 11 disabled adults under her supervision. Cooper has been charged with 11 counts of exploitation of a disabled adult and one count of scheme to defraud, all third-degree felonies. If convicted of all charges, Cooper faces up to 60 years in prison and a $60,000 fine.

The case will be prosecuted by William P. Cervone, state attorney for the 8th Judicial Circuit.

Source:
Pam Bondi: Alachua Woman Charged for Exploiting Disabled

TX Lawyer Stephen C. Brewer Disbarred

A Bedford attorney has been disbarred by the State Bar of Texas following accusations he failed to render appropriate legal services to an elderly client.

Stephen C. “Steve” Brewer is no longer eligible to practice law after he “neglected the legal matter entrusted to him by failing to perform any meaningful legal services on behalf of the complainant” in a probate matter, according to an order of default disbarment.

Brewer was accused of professional misconduct when he failed to keep his client reasonably informed about the status of a case and to promptly comply with requests for information, the bar said.

Full Article and Source:
State Bar: Bedford Attorney Disbarred, Ex Assistant AG in Fort Worth Suspended

NJ: Assembly Wants AG to Investigate Abuse and Neglect of the Disabled

The Assembly approved a resolution today urging the Christie Administration to give the Attorney General the responsibility of investigating abuse and neglect of disabled people at state-licensed facilities.

Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Bergen) sponsored the non-binding resolution (ACR147) at the request of families who testified at a hearing Monday that they have lost confidence in the Department of Human Services’ ability and impartiality to investigate the people who run group homes and facilities the department also pays and licenses.

Huttle said she is asking the Christie administration to make the change, rather than forcing the issue by passing a bill “to start a positive dialogue on abuse, neglect, and exploitation in the system. . . There are a lot of concerns about how allegations of abuse are addressed.”

The resolution passed by a 50 to 23 vote with three abstentions, and now heads to the Senate for consideration.

During a hearing Monday of the Assembly Human Services Committee, a half-dozen parents testified about how the department’s “special response unit” has failed to keep them informed when investigating whether their children have been abused. They also said they suspected private agencies and Human Services employees have a cozy relationship.

Full Article and Source:
Assembly Wants Attorney General to Investigate Abuse and Neglect of the Disabled

The Oregon Attorney General’s Race and Veteran/Conservatorship Ward Ben Alfano

Most of us, I believe, confront the ballot with prism in hand, the imperfect lens through which we measure the quality of the candidates and the relevance of the election.

In the Oregon attorney general’s race between Ellen Rosenblum and Dwight Holton, your prism may be marijuana, prosecutorial passion or John Kroger.

My prism is  Ben Alfano.

In the last two months of the veteran’s life, which I chronicled in February, Alfano was wrenched from the assisted-living facility he loved and dumped in a Gresham dementia-care unit. Alfano died there on Feb. 26, 2011, an especially bitter turn for four of his children, who had complained about conservator and guardianship issues for years.

Those objections were typically met with smug disdain, or worse, by the Oregon Department of Veterans’ Affairs, and its well-paid bodyguard at the Department of Justice.

When Alfano’s two sons sought a change in conservators, ODVA Director Jim Willis wrote a letter to Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., saying Steven Alfano had no legal status in his father’s case, when he, in fact, had Ben’s legal medical power of attorney, and accusing him of a “financial conflict of interest.”

When Alfano’s children sought help from state Rep. Mike Schaufler, D-Happy Valley, Kathy Andreas — ODVA’s conservatorship manager — responded to Steven Alfano’s meticulous detailing of the family’s problems with the agency as follows:

“It obviously took Steven many hours to organize and document his findings. That could explain why he has been spending less time lately with his father.”

There’s more where that came from, believe me.

When the four children looked to the state for help, they discovered that D. Kevin Carlson, one of Kroger’s senior assistants, was not only defending ODVA but billing Ben Alfano’s estate for his legal muscle and expertise.

Over the last two years, Carlson billed the estate more than $45,000. He also recommended in March that a Washington County judge reserve “at least $150,000” of what remains in the veteran’s estate to deal with the children’s federal civil rights’ claims against ODVA and the guardian, Chris Farley.

We have, then, another glaring example of the AG’s office defending state agencies to the extreme even when they’re in the wrong.

Full Article and Source:
Justice and the Oregon Attorney General’s Race Between Dwight Holton and Ellen Rosenblum

See Also:
Following Benjamin Alfano’s Money

KY Lawyers Join Call to End Improper Use of Antipsychotic Drugs in Nursing Facilities

Kentucky nursing home abuse and neglect lawyer Lee Coleman endorsed a recommendation to penalize nursing homes that use powerful psychiatric drugs inappropriately to calm patients who have dementia.

“We support the recommendations by U.S. Health and Human Services Inspector General Daniel Levinson that nursing homes that continue to inappropriately drug their residents with antipsychotic medications be denied Medicare payments for these drugs,” said Coleman, of Hughes & Coleman Injury Lawyers, a Kentucky personal injury firm that focuses on protecting the rights and interests of nursing home abuse and neglect victims.

“Medicare officials must step in to curb this dangerous practice, because they hold the purse strings,” Coleman said.

According to a Fox News report, Levinson recently told the Senate Committee on Aging that hundreds of thousands of elderly nursing home patients in the U.S. with dementia regularly receive drugs designed to control hallucinations, delusions and other abnormal behavior in people suffering from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Despite repeated government warnings that the practice is unapproved, nursing homes administer antipsychotic drugs to control the aggressive behavior that is sometimes symptomatic of dementia, the report said. Antipsychotics raise blood sugar and cholesterol, often resulting in weight gain and other side effects dangerous to the elderly.

Levinson proposed that Medicare force nursing homes to pay for drugs that are prescribed inappropriately and consider barring nursing homes that continue to use antipsychotics inappropriately from Medicare, according to the Associated Press.

Full Article and Source:
Kentucky Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Attorneys Join Call to End Improper Use of Antipsychotic Drugs in Nursing Homes

See Also:
Bowling Green Attorney Says Lawmakers Missed Opportunity To Protect State’s Nursing Home Residents From Abuse And Neglect