California Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Blog

A former aide at a home for the disabled has been arrested and charged with molesting two female residents. Curtis Cortez, age 59, is being held on $100,000 bail after his arrest, and is expected to be charged with seven felony counts of lewd and lascivious actions by a caretaker upon a dependent person.

From news accounts, it appears the man has confessed his crimes to police, at least partially. When police confronted Curtis about the allegations, he offered a "Hawaiian defense." He told authorities that he gave frequent hugs to people because it was part of his Hawaiian culture. He then volunteered that he was having problems with his girlfriend, and that he did touch one of the disabled woman's breasts and genitals.

From a civil liability standpoint it is an interesting case. Curtis himself would obviously be liable for sexual assault and battery, but probably unable to pay a civil judgment. The question is, would the home be liable? Generally speaking, an employer is not liable for the intentional criminal acts of its employees, unless the acts were engendered by, or arose out, the employee's duties. This one would be a close call.

What could hook the employers is a letter found in Curtis' employment records, which was an admonition to him to stop engaging in hugging or backrubs with clients in the home. The letter was written in November 2009. If the alleged molestations occurred after the letter was sent, the home could be negligent for keeping Curtis in its employ.

Source: MercuryNews.com

The Walton Law Firm represents seniors and dependent adults who have been abused or neglected in the nursing home, assisted living, or home health care setting. Call (866) 607-1325 for a free and confidential consultation.

About four years ago I had a very interesting case involving the death of a developmentally disabled adult in a San Bernardino care facility. In my case, the thirty-year old severely disabled man was found barely breathing on the floor next to his bed just after midnight. Medics were called, and tried to sustain his life, but sadly the man died. Staff and the family presumed it was a heart attack, since the decedent was very obese and had a history of some heart problems.

An autopsy, however, showed a different case of death. The medical examiner ruled the death a homicide, finding that the man died from blunt force trauma to his abdomen. The next question for use was Who did it?

Through the discovery process in a lawsuit we filed against the facility, we believed the death was caused by either a disgruntled employee, who was tired and angry at the resident for the demands he made on staff time, or an autistic room mate (who could not speak), who accidentally kicked the decedent in an act of self-defense. The case settled before trial, so those questions were never fully answered.

Today, the Government Accountability Office issued a report that states should more thoroughly investigate the deaths of developmentally disabled people who are receiving community based care. The GAO found that the manner in which deaths were investigated varied widely from state to state, and many investigations were inadequate to determine if the deaths were the result of poor quality of care. To provide adequate safeguards, the GAO is instructing Medicare to put more pressure on states to investigate all deaths of DD individuals, regardless of the suspected cause. The complete report can be found here.

It's worth mentioning that California's elder abuse laws apply equally to "dependent adults" which is any individual between the age of 18 and 64 who is in some type of custodial care. Frequently that includes developmentally disabled adults.