Three male nursing home workers were arrested on March 2 by state agents for suspicion of elder abuse; one for the actual physical abuse and the other two for witnessing the alleged act but failing to report it to authorities, as reported by the Mercury News in Sunnyvale.
State agents allege that the abuse included pulling on the genitalia of an elderly male resident this past January at Idylwood Care Center.
Arrested are Arnold Samson, 27, of San Jose, Ryan Tan, 22, of San Jose and Ricardo Martinez, 50, of Saratoga.
Samson, a certified nursing assistant that has since been let go from the Sunnyvale nursing home, is facing misdemeanor charges of elder abuse and battery.
The other two men, Tan and Martinez, were arrested for having knowledge of the abuse and not reporting it as mandated by law, and are also charged with misdemeanors.
The suspects are no longer in custody.
Agents from the California Department of Justice made the arrests. Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Steven Dick is overseeing the case as nursing home complaints are normally handled by the Attorney General’s Office.
Dick said, “Patients at all nursing homes deserve to be treated with respect, and no form of abuse will ever be tolerated.”
Larry Kamer, the spokesman for Idylwood Care Center, said, “Idylwood has always placed the highest priority on ensuring the most responsible level of care for our residents. We have cooperated fully with the attorney general in this investigation and will continue to do so.”
The Department of Public Health, Licensing and Certification Division had sent a “sexual misconduct and allegation alert” to agents in the Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse in late January.
A news release was then issued by the Department of Justice.
Te investigation began as a response to a tip they received that an Idylwood resident was seen being abused, and about the complaints that he had issued about it afterwards.
During questioning, the elderly man said that an employee saw him being grabbed in the genitalia and, also witnessed a crude comment being made about it. This particular nursing assistant did report the abuse immediately, and Samson was suspended.
In a news release, agents, in follow-up interviews, learned that Samson was guilty of repeated abuse. He had threatened “to torment” the resident and went so far as to disturb the man’s sleep just to “get a rise out of him.”
In an interview, and also released to the news, Tan admitted to seeing some of the acts perpetrated by Samson.
In 1998 Crestwood Behavioral Health, the company that owns Idylwood, was singled out for providing good care during a large investigative report made on nursing home chains.
If your loved one has been the victim of elder abuse while residing in a nursing home, monetary compensation may be applicable for their pain and suffering. Contact a personal injury lawyer from our directory to provide you with the help you’ll need in filing a lawsuit.