Hampton facility one step closer to losing license

Hearing officer is 'haunted by the tragic images of residents … This is a sad place to live … its doors must close.'

 

Ashwood Assisted Living in Hampton has moved one step closer to losing its license to operate. Eighty one residents with various physical and psychological impairments, all dependent on state auxiliary grants, live in conditions that the state has reported as putting them "at risk for their health, safety and welfare" for more than two years.

Three months after a May 30 hearing, closed at the request of owner Scott Schuett, hearing officer Sarah Smith Freeman sent her recommendation supporting revocation to the commissioner of the Department of Social Services for a final ruling. The 10-day period allowing for objections from both sides — the DSS and Schuett — ended Friday with no input from either, according to Freeman.

"This Hearing Officer is haunted by the tragic images of the residents who were questioned or observed during the inspections — the terminally ill resident, locked in a Geri chair and left to die over his eating tray, the female resident whose fingernails were worn and dirty with her own waste and the man who did not know he deserved to wear shoes even if his feet were quite wide. … This is a sad place to live. … The facility has come to its logical end and its doors must close," Freeman wrote in her 46-page recommendation.

Commissioner Margaret Ross Schultze, who answered questions via email, but was unavailable for comment in person, has 30 days to respond. According to Joron Moore, agency spokesperson, there's a possible extension of another 30 days. However, Freeman assured, "This one is going to generate a timely response."

The Department of Social Services, which oversees assisted living facilities in the state, first issued a notice of its intent to revoke Ashwood's license in June 2012. The home's temporary license expired more than a year ago, in August 2012. During the extended appeals process, it has remained open as inspection reports by the DSS have continued to enumerate violations that range from medication mismanagement to bed bug infestations to unsafe conditions.

Until recently, Schuett, who was stripped of his administrator's license in December 2012, operated six assisted living facilities in the region. All but Ashwood and Chesapeake Home in Chesapeake have now closed.

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Hampton facility one step closer to losing license

Woman guilty of exploiting elderly York woman: ‘I put her first in almost everything’

YORK Shirley Patton – who for two years supervised caregivers in Margie Miller’s home, ensured she was bathed and fed and held her power of attorney – pleaded guilty Tuesday to cashing $240,000 worth of the York woman’s life insurance checks.

Circuit Court Judge Derham Cole sentenced Patton, 54, to four years in prison, followed by five years of probation. decided. She also must pay restitution, with the amount determined later.

Patton this week was standing trial for the second time. She was charged with exploitation of a vulnerable adult and breach of trust with fraudulent intent, accused of stealing money from two life insurance policies belonging to Miller.

Police and prosecutors say she instructed the insurance company to send Miller’s checks to a Charlotte address, then deposited them in a Bank of America checking account. Miller, who died in September 2012, never saw a dime. She was 87.

She admitted to spending $78,000 on repairs to her home in Waxhaw, N.C., and paying herself a $26,000 salary.

Patton’s first trial ended in a mistrial after one juror refused to convict her.

By Tuesday afternoon, after prosecutors presented their case, Patton pleaded guilty to breach of trust. In exchange, E.B. Springs, the assistant 16th Circuit solicitor prosecuting Patton, dropped the exploitation charge.

But Haskell Patton said afterward that his wife felt “forced” into the plea deal by a “malicious” prosecutor and several witnesses who he said conspired to have Miller declared incompetent so they could gain ownership of land she owned.

His wife, he said, “just got in the way.”

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Woman guilty of exploiting elderly York woman: ‘I put her first in almost everything’

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/09/11/4304729/woman-guilty-of-exploiting-elderly.html#.UjcdZXjD--s#storylink=cpy

3 ex-CNAs won’t serve jail time in elderly patient-abuse case at Johnson City nursing home

Three former CNAs who admitted spraying two Appalachian Christian Village nursing home patients with water to agitate them were denied judicial diversion, but won’t serve any jail time.

A fourth woman was granted diversion because she didn’t participate in the abuse. She was charged because even though she didn’t participate, she saw the abuse on one occasion and didn’t report it.

Rebecca Blevins, 39; Jessica Ketterman, 22; and Jennifer Ketterman, 20, all of Elizabethton, pleaded guilty earlier this year to two counts of willful abuse, neglect or exploitation of a dependent adult. Blevins was not eligible for diversion due to previous bad check convictions. At that same hearing, Amanda Adolphi, 33, Gray, pleaded guilty to failure to report the abuse.

In the plea agreements, the women were each given an 11 month, 29 day sentence, which will be served on probation. Adolphi was the only one granted diversion. After her year of probation, the conviction can be erased from her record.

A fifth woman, Bonita Scott, 51, Chuckey, was also charged in the incident, but she pleaded guilty to her case shortly after being charged.

“This case tears me up,” said Senior Judge Jon Kerry Blackwood. “We have over here four, probably very nice people, who have been contributing members of society. It’s inscrutable.”

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3 ex-CNAs won’t serve jail time in elderly patient-abuse case at Johnson City nursing home

Nurse faces drug charge



A state registered nurse supplied Temazepam prescribed for another patient to an elderly woman in a nursing home.

Patricia Connolly, 56, of Back Westgate, Hornsea admitted to supplying Temazepam to 93-year-old Bertha Hutchinson during her employment as a nurse at Northfield Manor Nursing Home in Driffield.

The offence took place in January this year.

On Wednesday 4 September at Bridlington Magistrates’ Court it was heard Connolly is a state registered nurse, and has previously worked as a psychiatric nurse.

Prosecution solicitor David Ward said: “There was an elderly lady who was 93-years-old and she appears to have been prescribed some extra Temazepam which was actually for another patient. That idea was that this would help her to sleep as she was having problems sleeping, walking round at night.

“She was reported by a cleaner as being the only nurse that didn’t follow the normal procedure. Mrs Connolly would administer the drugs without anybody else present and would ask the cleaner who was also a qualified as an assistant to sign the paper work.

“Subsequently this was reported to the doctor and saying perhaps this wasn’t helping with her problem. The extra medication she was on was affecting her balance, so it may have been counter-productive.

“The defendant was interviewed and made full admissions. It is a willful administration of a prescribed drug.

“It seems quite a sad case.”

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Nurse faces drug charge

Court's question: Which judges can suspend judges?

Right after Philadelphia Traffic Court Judge Mark A. Bruno was indicted in a federal ticket-fixing probe, the state Supreme Court landed on him hard, suspending him without pay.

But then, another judicial oversight organization weighed in. Not so fast, said the state Court of Judicial Discipline.

In May, that panel ruled that the federal case against Bruno was weak and ordered his pay - but not his duties - reinstated until his criminal trial.

With those rival rulings as a backdrop, a lawyer for the Judicial Conduct Board, the investigative and prosecutorial arm of the judicial court, stood in court Tuesday to argue that the Supreme Court needed to butt out - that it was the job of the conduct board and its judicial court to suspend judges.

In one of the day's many ironies, Robert A. Graci had to make this argument to the very body whose actions he was challenging, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

Graci also argued that the Supreme Court had overstepped its bounds and wrongly sought to discipline another Traffic Court judge, Christine Solomon. In April, the justices put Solomon on notice that they planned to suspend her without pay for three months - a $22,000 cut - for allegedly stonewalling an internal inquiry into Traffic Court corruption.

The report from that inquiry gave Solomon some notoriety: She was quoted as having told investigators she was aware of ticket-fixing, but did not want to incriminate others by providing details.

The same report strongly suggested that a state Supreme Court justice, Seamus P. McCaffery, had fixed a ticket for his wife. McCaffery has denied this.

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Court's question: Which judges can suspend judges?

Probate judge, Horry County Sheriff’s Office issue warning of possible fraud

A probate judge contacted the Horry County Sheriff’s Office when she learned of a possible scam, said agency spokesman Jeff Benton.

A resident told Judge Deirdre Edmonds someone came to their door claiming to be with the Horry County Probate Court and asked about a recent death in the family. Benton said the intent of the suspect is not known, but Benton said suspects in events like this typically prey on vulnerable people to gain access to their home or defraud them of money.

Probate court handles administration of estates of deceased persons, Edmonds said, but will not solicit families of the deceased and court representatives would never be sent to a home or property to inquire about a death. The only time a someone from the probate court would visit a home is when a guardianship or conservatorship action has been filed in the court for an incapacitated adult who is unable to manage personal or financial affairs.

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Probate judge, Horry County Sheriff’s Office issue warning of possible fraud

Ohio attorney faces discipline in billing probe

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- A private southwest Ohio attorney who was appointed by various courts to handle the cases of people who couldn't afford a lawyer is being disciplined after an audit found he had submitted bills for working 29 hours in a single day and more than 20 hours per day in other occasions.

The Dayton Daily News (http://bit.ly/19MfgEl ) reported Thursday that a disciplinary action against Dayton attorney Ben Swift has been filed with the Ohio Supreme Court's Board of Commissioners.

The state's highest court will determine Swift's sanction.

Courts are allowed to hire private attorneys when public defenders aren't available and the state and county pay their bills. Swift at some point had handled nearly 850 cases.

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Ohio attorney faces discipline in billing probe

Ex-councilwoman in Hagerstown indicted on theft, perjury charges

HAGERSTOWN, Maryland — A Washington County grand jury has indicted a formerly Hagerstown city councilwoman on theft and perjury charges for money allegedly taken from an estate.

The indictment against Kelly S. Cromer was filed in court on Tuesday. It alleges that Cromer, an attorney, stole thousands of dollars from the estate of a woman who died in 2011 and from two of her grandchildren.

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Ex-councilwoman in Hagerstown indicted on theft, perjury charges

Left With Nothing

On the day Bennie Coleman lost his house, the day armed U.S. marshals came to his door and ordered him off the property, he slumped in a folding chair across the street and watched the vestiges of his 76 years hauled to the curb.

Movers carted out his easy chair, his clothes, his television. Next came the things that were closest to his heart: his Marine Corps medals and photographs of his dead wife, Martha. The duplex in Northeast Washington that Coleman bought with cash two decades earlier was emptied and shuttered. By sundown, he had nowhere to go.

All because he didn’t pay a $134 property tax bill.

The retired Marine sergeant lost his house on that summer day two years ago through a tax lien sale — an obscure program run by D.C. government that enlists private investors to help the city recover unpaid taxes.

For decades, the District placed liens on properties when homeowners failed to pay their bills, then sold those liens at public auctions to mom-and-pop investors who drew a profit by charging owners interest on top of the tax debt until the money was repaid.

But under the watch of local leaders, the program has morphed into a predatory system of debt collection for well-financed, out-of-town companies that turned $500 delinquencies into $5,000 debts — then foreclosed on homes when families couldn’t pay, a Washington Post investigation found.

As the housing market soared, the investors scooped up liens in every corner of the city, then started charging homeowners thousands in legal fees and other costs that far exceeded their original tax bills, with rates for attorneys reaching $450 an hour.

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Left With Nothing