ASSISTED LIVING FACILITY OWNER CHARGED WITH ABUSE

Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr. announced today that Thomas C. Williams, a former owner of an assisted living facility located in Baltimore County was charged with one count of abuse of a vulnerable adult and one count of second degree assault for an assault that occurred on December 17, 2003.

Attorney General Curran’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit had previously prosecuted Williams in March of this year for leaving two developmentally disabled men, who were in his care, alone and unsupervised for almost four hours during a record-setting blizzard in February of 2003. Williams, 36, of the 1100 block of Bonaparte Avenue in Baltimore, is currently serving eight months in the Baltimore County Detention Center for neglecting those vulnerable adults.

Abuse of vulnerable adults by care givers is a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum sentence of five years in jail and/or a $5,000 fine. Second degree assault is a misdemeanor punishable by not more than 10 years in prison and/or not more than a $2,500 fine. A criminal information is an accusation, and all persons are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

The case is being 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 and assisted living units.

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