Watchdog group holds town hall meetings in Albert Lea
December 11th, 2008 by Jennifer Walker-Journey
The “attacks-for-thrills” case where four nursing home aides were accused of abusing cognitively impaired residents at Good Samaritan Society in Albert Lea, Minn., for entertainment, has captured the attention of a national watchdog group, according to the Star Tribune.
Wes Bledsoe, president and founder of A Perfect Cause, arrives Thursday and will host a town hall meeting addressing the abuse at Good Samaritan Society. A Perfect Cause is a victim’s advocacy organization that fights “to end needless suffering and preventable deaths while protecting the rights of citizens from corporate greed and negligence.”
According to prosecutors, the nursing aides held down residents, put their fingers in residents’ mouths and noses to quiet their cries and screams, hit and rubbed their breasts and genitals, and sexually “humped” some residents. The aides allegedly called the abuse “work fun or to get a good laugh.”
But it was no laughing matter. The adults in the case, 19-year-old Brianna Broitzman and 18-year-old Ashton Larson, are charged with assault, abuse of a vulnerable adult by a caregiver, abuse of a vulnerable adult with sexual contact, disorderly conduct and failure to report suspected maltreatment. All are gross misdemeanors. The Freeborn County Attorney says they will likely face suspended jail sentences and probation.
The abuse reportedly began early this year and lasted for several months. Three of the 15 residents have died and the others cannot be interviewed by investigators because they suffer from diseases that affect memory and cognition.
Bledsoe said the reports of recreational abuse at the nursing home disturbed him, but did not surprise him. “Where is the moral compass of these employees?” He posed in the newspaper story.