Authorities have rounded up 18 of the 21 people accused of mistreating patients at an Alzheimer’s center in Commerce, the GBI said Friday.
The suspects — including the owner of Alzheimer’s Care of Commerce — are accused of slapping residents, throwing water on them and double-diapering so they wouldn’t have to be changed so often.
The suspects — current and former employees — face a combined 72 charges.
Twenty-six residents were sent to other facilities Tuesday after a two-month investigation spearheaded by the GBI.
Families of the residents said they were shocked by the allegations. An attorney for owner Donna Wright said that residents were treated like family.
Commerce Police Chief John Gaissert said he called in the GBI in April after receiving multiple complaints of elder abuse at the facility beginning in late March.
During the investigation, the GBI learned patients were being cared for by people with prior felony convictions ranging from voluntary manslaughter to drug charges to identify theft. State law bars felons from working in such facilities, GBI Director Vernon Keenan said. Agents also found that unauthorized personnel were administering medications to the patients, and medications prescribed to the patients were found to be missing or unaccounted for during an audit of the facility in May 2013.
“Things were out of control, ” Keenan said Wednesday of conditions at the center. “The facility was not being managed professionally. Checks and balances were not in place; professional protocols were not being followed.”
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