CAREGIVER SENTENCED FOR STRIKING 81-YEAR-OLD

Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr. announced today that a nursing assistant, Betty Costley, 61, of the 6900 block of Eden Mill Road in Woodbine, pleaded guilty in the Circuit Court of Baltimore County to one count of abuse of a vulnerable adult for striking an 81-year-old nursing home resident. Costley was sentenced by the Honorable John Grason Turnbull, II to three years in prison, the term of which he suspended, and three years probation.

According to the statement of facts, on January 13, 2002, Costley was employed as a nursing assistant at Chapel Hill Nursing Center in Randallstown and was assigned to care for the 81-year-old vulnerable adult victim. The victim, who has dementia, suffers from congestive heart failure, and is wheelchair bound, requires assistance with all of her activities of daily living. While Costley was supposed to be assisting the victim, she instead began struggling with her, and then struck the nursing home resident in the face with sufficient force to leave a welt and to briefly lift one wheel of the woman's wheelchair off of the ground.

"This Office will not tolerate abuse of the elderly," Attorney General Curran said. "We treat these cases very seriously and will continue to prosecute and seek jail time when appropriate."

This case was prosecuted by the Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, which has authority to prosecute abuse or neglect in facilities that receive Medicaid funds.

#