CNA Guilty in Abuse Case
KansasCity.com had an article reporting the guilty plea of one of two women accused of physically and sexually humiliating nursing home residents for months in Albert Lea, Minn., to three of the charges against her in a case that has heightened attention to how aides are chosen and supervised. Brianna Broitzman was an aide at Good Samaritan, the nursing home that was the focus of state investigations and widespread publicity about the case in early 2008. Her guilty plea covers gross-misdemeanor disorderly conduct involving three victims.
The charges against Broitzman said she admitted to police that she poked one resident in the breast. The teens who were implicated accused Broitzman of numerous other actions, including spitting in a resident's mouth, jabbing the breasts of several residents and putting "her bare butt" on a resident's face.
According to the complaint against Larson, she admitted to police that she inserted her finger into the rectum of a resident. She said she was trying to trigger a bowel movement but acknowledged that this was not part of her training. The complaint said she also acknowledged getting into bed with a resident and making a humping motion, patting the buttocks of one resident and trying to get another angry and then laughing at her.
The allegations became public in August 2008, when state Health Department inspectors concluded that aides, to make their work "fun," had abused 15 residents suffering from Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. The state said some of the residents were combative, easily agitated or blind.
Six aides, high school friends at the time, were charged - Broitzman and Ashton Larson as adults and the four others as juveniles who were found responsible for not reporting the abuse as required by state law. The women were accused of abusing seven residents who suffered from dementia.
Sexual abuse cases in nursing homes during the 1980s and '90s led to laws requiring reports of suspected abuse and criminal background checks of those who work with vulnerable adults.
Broitzman will be sentenced in Freeborn County District Court on Oct. 22. A presentence investigation recommends that Broitzman spend up to a year in jail, pay a $3,000 fine or spend two years on probation.
The case against Larson, 20, another former aide at the Good Samaritan nursing home, is proceeding toward trial. Broitzman and Larson were charged with fifth-degree assault, abuse of a vulnerable adult by a caregiver, abuse of a vulnerable adult with sexual contact, disorderly conduct and failing to report suspected maltreatment. All are gross misdemeanors.
