FORMER HOUSE MANAGER OF ASSISTED LIVING HOME IN BALTIMORE COUNTY SENTENCED FOR ABUSE

Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr. announced today that a former house manager at an assisted living home in Baltimore County was found guilty of abuse of a vulnerable adult for punching a developmentally disabled man in the face. Dale Avery Woodard, 42, of the 2400 block of West Lexington Street, Baltimore, was sentenced by Baltimore County District Court Judge Bruce Sewell Lamdin to three years incarceration, all but 44 days suspended, two years supervised probation, and ordered to stay out of the direct care field for two years.

Woodard was paid by Hixon Options Assisted Living to care for a 49-year-old resident who suffers from bi-polar disorder, schizophrenia, hypertension, stroke and has a shunt in his head. The resident was in his yard talking with neighbors outside the home in Walden Cypress Court, Baltimore County. When he did not immediately respond to Woodard’s request to come inside, Woodard grabbed the front of the victim’s shirt and punched him in the face with a closed fist. The victim was taken to the hospital and treated for bruising to his eye and cheekbone.

This case was prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, which has authority to prosecute abuse or neglect in Medicaid-funded facilities.

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