HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015 03-06 State: Nursing aide with assault history molested client at Maplewood facility STAR TRIBUNE �cStarTribune
State: Nursing aide with assault history
molested client at Maplewood facility
Article by:Paul Walsh
Star Tribune
March 6,2015-9:53 AM
A 40-year-old resident at a Maplewood care facility was molested over nearly"every inch"of her body last year by a nursing
aide who had a previous conviction for assault and should have been barred from direct contact with patients,according to
an investigation by the Minnesota Department of Health.
The incident,which occurred after the aide offered the woman a nighttime massage tor a sore back,occurred on May 6,
2014,at a facility operated by Golden Valley-based Parkinson's Specialty Home Care,the investigation found.
Parkinson's CEO Marcia Cotter said Thursday that the aide worked as a contract employee of Soul Care,a Minneapolis
staffing agency,and said her company assumed Soul Care had checked the man's background."When we found out[about
the allegations],we terminated our relationship with them,"Cotter said.
State law requires supplemental nursing agencies to conduct background checks on employees who will have direct contact
with clients,but it also requires the operators of nursing homes and licensed care facilities to keep a copy of that background
check.
Iris Freeman,director of the Vulnerable Adult Justice Project at William Mitchell College of Law in St.Paul,said a nursing
facility is legally responsible for providing safe care to its residents,even if that care is being provided by an outside agency.
The Heallh Department fonvarded its fndings to Maplewood police and the Ramsey County attomey's office.But Maplewood
Police Chief Paul Schnell said no charges were fled because of ins�cient evidence.
"These are very diffcult...cases from a prosecution standpoint,"Schnell said."There is a high burden of proof,and in this
case,prosecutors didn't feel there was suffcient evidence."
In March 2011,the aide and the contrector were notified by the state Department of Human Services that he was banned
professionally from"any position allowing direct contact with,access to,persons receiving services"from state-licensed care
programs.That restriction grew out of a fourth-degree assault conviction.
In November 2012,the Health Department initially concluded that the same aide sexually assaulted a resident with
personality tlisorders at the Lake Minnetonka Care Center in Deephaven.The resident in this case,the department said in its
public findings,was a woman in her mid-50s who reported that she was digitally penetreted by the man.
Deephaven police said the lack of a confession made it diffcult to seek charges against the St.Paul man,who is in his mid-
40s,and no case was pursued.The home's administrator challenged the fndings and a month later,state health officials
reversed themselves and labeled the case"unsubstantiated."
In both the Maplewood and Deephaven cases,the aide denied wrongdoing,the department said.
Soul Care's registration as a supplemental nursing services agency was revoked by the state Department of Health,meaning
it should have ceased operation,an agency spokesman said Thursday.
An offcial who answered Soul Care's phone Thursday said the company was bought out and renametl All Hearts Service,
and that the aide has not worked for the company since the Maplewood allegations surfaced.All Hearts Service is not
registered with the state as a supplemental nursing agency,a Health Department spokesman said.
The name of the aide has not been released by the Health Department,which is the agency's practice in such investigations.
The Star Tribune obtained the man's name through criminal records,but reached on Thursday,he declined to comment,as
did his atromey.
According to the Health Department's report in the Maplewood case:
The Gient was suffering from a degenerative disease but was"alert and oriented."The aide helped the woman get ready for
bed.She said her back was sore,prompting the aide to offer her a back rub.The aide used lotion on her back,then rolled her
over and"touched/massaged'every inch of my body'...except for the clienYs pubic area."
The resident reported the incident to a nurse and added that she's needed"increased visits to a therapist lo assist her in
dealing with the incident."
The aide's cnminal history in Minnesota includes a fourth-degree assault conviction from 2008,when he was driving outside a
St.Paul grocery store and briefly dragged a police offcer who suspected him of shoplifting.His record also includes
convictions for domestic assault and thefl.
Paul Walsh•612-673-4482