Gwinnett care home workers charged with neglect

Two caregivers at an unlicensed Gwinnett County personal care home have been charged with neglect after authorities reportedly discovered “an extensive history of calls for service,” a litany of code violations and a refrigerator that was chained shut.

Gwinnett County police spokeswoman Cpl. Michele Pihera said officials began investigating the home on Wrexham Drive near Snellville on the afternoon of May 6, when officers were dispatched to reports of a domestic dispute between two male residents. Responding officers didn’t make any arrests connected to the fight but, based on the home’s history of calls, contacted the department’s special victims unit, Pihera said.

A caregiver reportedly denied that the facility was a personal care home. Police determined, however, that the state’s Healthcare Facilities Regulation division had already cited the home and “was planning to close it down within the coming days,” Pihera said.

“While the investigator was at the home,” Pihera said, “he discovered that the refrigerator was chained shut and the food supplies were locked away. The only person with a key to the refrigerator was a resident of the home. The investigator also learned that the residents were sometimes left unsupervised in the home.”

During the investigation, the police department’s quality of life unit noted “several” ordinance violations, officials said. The fire marshal’s office also issued a notice of non-compliance “citing three pages of violations.”

Warrants were issued Wednesday charging two caregivers at the facility with seven counts apiece of neglect of a disabled adult or elder person, a felony. Citing a Georgia code section that protects the identities of alleged victims and perpetrators of long-term care facility resident abuse, Pihera declined to release the names of those charged.

Warrants obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, however, showed that one of the suspects was 35-year-old Snellville resident Donovan Coward. Online records showed he was arrested Wednesday and, as of Thursday afternoon, remained at the Gwinnett County jail in lieu of $193,900 bond.