Caregivers at a Florida center for the brain-injured beat patients, goaded them to fight each other and fondle female employees and in one instance laughed at complaints of mistreatment, according to investigative reports released under a court order to Bloomberg News.
The center, the Florida Institute for Neurologic Rehabilitation, is fighting a state directive that it move about 50 patients to other facilities. That order followed a Bloomberg story revealing a history of violence at the center southeast of Tampa. At least five patients have died from alleged abuse or neglect there since 1998, two in the last two years.
The newly released records summarize 15 probes conducted by the Florida Department of Children and Families since 2008, including 12 that have never been disclosed before. Leon County Circuit Court Judge Kevin J. Carroll ordered the state to provide the reports, with the names of victims blacked out, after Bloomberg petitioned the court, arguing there was a compelling public interest.
The Wauchula-based facility, known as FINR, draws patients from across the U.S. and abroad and is said by competitors to be the largest such rehabilitation center in the country. It often finds customers among the relatively few brain injured with legal settlements or insurance payments that enable them to pay premium prices. FINR charges some of them $300,000 a year.
In all of the 15 cases summarized in the reports --involving 17 patients and 20 staff members -- the allegations were classified by investigators as verified, meaning they were supported by a “preponderance of credible evidence.”
‘Difficult Population’
Until now, the state had released only a summary of complaints, indicating there have been 526 allegations of abuse and neglect since 2005. Of those, 37 were deemed verified. Another 117 fell into a category defined by state regulations as when “there is credible evidence that does not meet the standard of preponderance.” The rest are still being investigated or involved cases where the agency discovered no evidence of abuse.
Joe Brennick, FINR’s owner and chief executive officer, declined to comment on individual cases. In an e-mailed statement, Brennick said the center “has consistently acted in the best interest of its patients, and has one of the toughest self-reporting policies in place for a facility of its kind.”
“It is important to understand that FINR serves one of the most difficult populations of patients in the country,” he said, “and that these patients often act out aggressively and are extremely difficult to manage. This is not to absolve wrongdoing by staff members, but is a fact that is often overlooked in media reports.”
Full Article and Source:
Caregivers Bloodied Patients as Complaints Drew Laughter
See Also:
Florida Brain Injury Center Fights Order to Move Patients
With just a year left of college, Tessa Venell was looking forward to her senior year. But a car accident in July 2006 left the then 21-year-old Medford resident
in a coma with broken bones and a traumatic brain injury.
Despite the dismal forecast, Tessa overcame the odds. One year after her accident, she returned to finish her degree at Brandeis University. She went on to film an environmental documentary in China and is now writing a book about her recovery and rehabilitation.
A lawsuit filed by CANHR against the Department of Public Health and Country
Villa Service Corp, challenges the state-approved practice of allowing Country
Villa nursing homes to contract out their operations to another entity owned by
Country Villa. 
A psychological study conducted by Professor Shelley Taylor reported this week that a section of the brain known as the anterior insula is to blame for elderly people being more susceptible to fall victim to scams. This new information creates an interesting addition to a study conducted earlier in the year by researchers at the University of Iowa, which recorded that aging of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex results in a lessened ability to process doubt and skepticism when taking in visual information.
Wise had worked in the office for 20 years and was the associate probate judge when the charges were brought against her earlier this year. She was elected probate judge in July and was scheduled to be sworn in Jan. 1 to the seat of retiring Judge Martin Gillette.
The center, the Florida Institute for Neurologic Rehabilitation, is fighting a state directive that it move about 50 patients to other facilities. That order followed a Bloomberg story revealing a history of violence at the center southeast of Tampa. At least five patients have died from alleged abuse or neglect there since 1998, two in the last two years. 
The decision is a major victory for Danny Reed, a brain-injury victim whose
story was featured in July in this newspaper's investigation "Loss of Trust" --
an exposé of how the Santa Clara County Superior Court long allowed estate
managers to receive outlandish fees for their court-appointed duties serving the
disabled and elderly.
"This is much bigger than me," Reed said Thursday. "It's for all the people
who can't understand what's going on. This is something that will help them
too."
According to Murray, Raymond Roche, 54, a Mahwah resident, was served with a three-count indictment after allegedly stealing settlement checks from his personal injury clients.
A federal judge in Pennsylvania has given final approval to a settlement that will pay out nearly $18 million to juveniles who allege they were wrongly jailed by corrupt judges.[Former Luzurne County Judges Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella]
While Ben Alfano will be much with his children this week, if only in memory, Thanksgiving eve would seem a callous time to render "final" judgment on the draining of the veteran's estate. 
“There is no disagreement that the actions of the mother, Eva Cameron, in this case were inexcusable,” the news release states. “However, Tennessee law has not anticipated such behavior and thus the Grand Jury was faced with conduct which was not necessarily indictable.”