Fifteen suspects have been arrested, and six others were still being pursued at mid-day Wednesday in an Alzheimer patient abuse case that has rocked Jackson County.
The arrests follow a lengthy investigation by the GBI and other law enforcement agencies of the Alzheimer’s Care of Commerce facility.
Officials said the investigation uncovered evidence of patients being slapped, improperly medicated, restrained with bed sheets and doused with water.
Some of the facility’s caretakers were convicted felons, who subjected patients to double-diapering so they didn’t have to be changed as often, the GBI said.
Twenty-six patients were moved from the facility on Tuesday. Three were sent to the hospital with undisclosed conditions.
As of 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, all but six of the 21 suspects were arrested, Jackson County Sheriff Janis Mangum said.
“We are looking for [the rest] and are getting them on our most-wanted list on our web page,” the sheriff said.
Bonds for the suspects ranged from $45,000 to $75,000, with each facing between three and five charges, Mangum said.
The facility’s owner, Donna Wright, had a $75,000 bond and five warrants, the sheriff said.
Nine who could not make bond were being brought before the local magistrate for a first appearance hearing on Wednesday morning, she said.
GBI director Vernon Keenan said 72 warrants were issued against Wright and 20 current and former employees.
They are charged with cruelty to a person 65 years of age or older, abuse, neglect and financial exploitation and failure to report under the Protection of Disabled Adults and Elderly Persons, he said.
Wright’s attorney, Mo Wiltshire, said Wright and her husband owned and operated the facility for 18 years before the husband’s death three years ago.
The couple treated all of the residents like family, he said.
“And they have tried to provide loving and secure and safe care for them,” Wiltshire said. “We don’t have any details of what the supposed problems allegedly are. We are very, very surprise and shocked.”
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 also 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, Keenan said. Agents also found that unauthorized personnel were administering medications to the patients, and medication prescribed to the patients were found to be missing or unaccounted for during an audit of the facility in May of 2013.
Records show the facility was inspected by the state in 2011 and 2013 and had multiple violations. Inspectors found, among other things, that the center had not run the required criminal background checks on some employees and had at least one person with an unsatisfactory criminal record check who had been on staff for years. They also found that some bathrooms were not properly ventilated and that the facility had admitted some patients who required a higher level of care.
The state Department of Community Health this year substantiated deficiencies "consistent with the GBI's allegations," said Pam Keene, agency spokesman. Beginning in late May, DCH monitored the facility on a daily basis until the facility was in full compliance, she said.
Tuesday, James Duncan was moving his 97-year-old mother Dollie to another facility. He was in disbelief.
He said he came to the facility to see his mother at least twice a week and had “never seen anything” to indicate that the charges of abuse are true.
“I’ve talked to my sister and my brother, and they concur with that,” Duncan said.
Clyde Ivester, whose mother, mother-in-law and father-in-law have lived at the facility in recent years, said he visits regularly and has seen no indications of abuse. “We never saw rooms that were dirty, patients that were dirty or abused,” he said.
His wife, Gwen Ivester, said the couple did “a lot of research” before choosing the facility.
“We didn’t draw this name out of a hat,” she said. “That’s why we put our loved ones there. We had no complaints.”
Carol Wade said she had seen a patient tied to a wheelchair for safety reasons.
“But that’s understandable,” she said. “I haven’t seen anything that was alarming, or my mom wouldn’t be there.”
Keenan said the facility was “very, very clean” when authorities arrived there Tuesday, “indicating to us that they had been forewarned of the search warrant.”
Under the search warrant, law enforcement officials were allowed to search for patient records, financial records and documents dealing with patients’ medications that could show patient abuse, potential financial crimes and medicine irregularities, the GBI spokesman said.
Dewitt Todd arrived late Tuesday to pick up his dad, Ray Todd and also expressed surprise at the allegations of abuse.
“The people I know here — that I’ve been seeing — have been nice to me and, as far as I know, have been nice to him,” Todd said of his 89-year-old father who has lived at the facility for about six months.
Dr. Tom Price, an Emory geriatrician who specializes in issues related to abuse and neglect of the elderly, said abuse cases are becoming more prevalent “not just in licensed but unlicensed” facilities.
“People with Alzheimer’s are much more vulnerable,” Price said. “In many cases, they don’t have capacity to report these events.”
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