MIAMI (WSVN) - Group home horror has landed three employees in hot water, and this, as well as other cases, has led to the formation of a new task force.
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle released surveillance video of the employees back in December struggling to restrain a patient at the group home known as the Family Tree Concept, Wednesday.
The video showed them aggressively taking him down, putting the patient in a choke-hold, which ultimately ended his life.
“He was lifeless, and they basically choked hold him to death,” said Rundle. “The group home staff appeared to have little training on how to actually deal with problems related to mental illnesses or training on how to restrain a person without injuring them or killing them.”
Katherine Hair, Terrence Nelson Jr. and Derrick Coley have all been charged with manslaughter and aggravated abuse in connection with the man’s death.
Rundle, along with the county’s mayor and several other officials, gathered Wednesday afternoon to announce the formation of the Elder and Vulnerable Abuse Work Group with the goal to stop incidents like this from happening again.
“We need to do more to fight elder and vulnerable adult exploitation abuse,” said Rundle.
7News stopped by the facility at 1370 NE 138th St. in North Miami to try get some answers, but no one wanted to talk.
The group also spoke about several other cases involving elderly abuse and exploitation, including one where a woman allegedly pretended to be someone else online to gain the trust of an elderly victim and was able to swindle her out of large sums of money.
Another example is a case where a woman in Doral, pretended to be the daughter of an elderly cancer patient to sneak into a hospital and scam her out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. That suspect has not been arrested, although her son has a connection to the crime.
“We are going to get to work protecting our older adults, our vulnerable population from abuse, fraud and exploitation,” said Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.
Florida ranks second in the nation for the number of victims of crime against those age 60 and older. Miami-Dade County ranks number one in the state.
“Sadly, of course, the problem hasn’t gotten better, it has only gotten worse,” said Levine Cava.
The multiple agencies working together said they are in need of the public’s help because they rely on reports filed. Then, they are able to pursue the people responsible.
The three employees are due back in court on June 23.
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