BALTIMORE COUNTY GROUP HOME MANAGER CHARGED WITH NEGLECT

J. Joseph Curran Jr. announced today that a former house manager at a group home for developmentally disabled individuals, Robert Leo Marion, Jr., has been charged with neglect of a vulnerable adult and reckless endangerment in connection with a September 24, 2003 incident in which he left two developmentally disabled adults alone and unsupervised for more than six hours.

Marion, 39, of the 2500 block of Loyola Northway, Baltimore was employed at Caring Hands, Inc. which operated a group home in Baltimore County. He was charged by Criminal Information with three counts of criminal neglect and three counts of reckless endangerment.

Intentional abuse and neglect of vulnerable adults by a caregiver is a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum sentence of five years in jail and/or a $5,000 fine. Reckless endangerment is a misdemeanor punishable by not more than five years in jail and/or a $5,000 fine. A criminal information is an accusation and all persons are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

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

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