Nursing Assistant Pleads Guilty to Abusing Elderly Franklin Nursing Home Patients
Tuesday, February 21st, 2006.
Boston, MA - A former certified nursing assistant has pleaded guilty and been sentenced for abusing four elderly patients in five incidents at a Franklin nursing home, Attorney General Tom Reilly announced today.
Bernadette Stackpole, 52, of Bellingham, pleaded guilty to five counts each of assault and battery and patient abuse. Norfolk Superior Court Judge Charles Grabau sentenced her to a suspended sentence with probation and barred her from working with the physically or mentally disabled. The Commonwealth had requested a sentence of two years in the House of Corrections with six months to serve and the balance suspended for five years on each count.
Stackpole faced the charges after an investigation by AG Reilly’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) into abuse that occurred at Franklin Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, where Stackpole was employed as a certified nursing assistant from September 1989 until May 2004.
The investigation uncovered that in five incidents over several months between February 2003 and April 2004, Stackpole physically and emotionally abused four elderly Franklin Skilled residents with dementia. The investigation further found that in the five separate incidents, Stackpole struck, slapped, improperly touched or verbally abused four patients.
Franklin Skilled staff members reported the abuse incidents to Franklin Skilled administrators, who referred the matter to the Department of Public Health (DPH) and the Attorney General’s Office. On May 6, 2004, DPH conducted an independent investigation of numerous incidents of abuse involving Stackpole. In conjunction with the Attorney General’s investigation, Stackpole was subsequently indicted on five incidents.
Stackpole’s conduct took place prior to passage of Senate Bill 1083, sponsored by AG Reilly, and co-sponsored by Rep. Lida Harkins (D-Needham) and Sen. Linda Melconian (D.-W.Springfield). This legislation was passed in recognition of the vulnerability of the aged and disabled and the need for more effective deterrent of abusive conduct. In April 2005, Senate Bill 1083’s amendments to the bill became effective, which established a new crime of assault and battery on an elder or person with a disability, and enhanced penalties for elder abuse by a caretaker. Under these amendments, Stackpole would have faced maximum sentences of three years in state prison and a $5,000 fine and, under related amendments to G. L. c. 111, sec. 72K, would have been liable for civil penalties of $20,000.
Stackpole was fired by Franklin Skilled officials on May 5, 2004.
Assistant Attorney General Rick Grundy, deputy chief of AG Reilly’s Fair Labor and Business Division and Assistant Attorney General Toby Unger prosecuted the case, which was investigated by Investigators Steven Devlin and Linda Landry, also of the MFCU.
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