BALTIMORE COUNTY WOMAN PLEADS GUILTY TO ABUSE

J. Joseph Curran, Jr. announced today that Jessie Knight, a former instructor at the Chimes Day Habilitation Center, Inc., in Baltimore County pleaded guilty to repeatedly abusing a developmentally disabled man who was in her care. Knight, 49, of the 5100 block of Oaklawn Road, Baltimore, was employed by the Chimes, Inc. which ran a day habilitation program in Baltimore County.

Baltimore County Circuit Court Judge Dana M. Levitz sentenced Knight to two years incarceration, suspending all but nine months to be served in home detention. Judge Levitz also ordered Knight to refrain from providing direct care to vulnerable adults for five years, and placed Knight on five years supervised probation.

According to the statement of facts, Knight abused a severely mentally retarded man on three separate occasions. Knight kicked the man in the genitals when he walked out of the bathroom with his pants down and without a diaper on. The force of the kick was so strong that the victim fell backwards. Knight laughed and then locked the victim in the bathroom for fifteen minutes. Later that same day, Knight kicked the vulnerable adult in the chest. On another occasion, Knight hit the man on the head with a single block and then a box of blocks.

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

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