FORMER EMPLOYEE OF BALTIMORE ASSISTED LIVING FACILITY PLEADS GUILTY TO ABUSE OF A VULNERABLE ADULT

Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr. announced today that Theresa Jackson, 52, a former employee of an assisted living facility in Baltimore, pled guilty in Baltimore City Circuit Court to first degree abuse of a vulnerable adult for punching an autistic man who was in her care in the eye and causing him to become blind in that eye.

Jackson, whose last known address is 3714 Forest Park Avenue, Baltimore, had been employed as an assisted living manager at Myra’s Assisted Living at 2620 Greenmount Avenue, Baltimore, for approximately six months when the incident occurred on January 8, 2004. The victim is a 62-year-old man who suffers from autism, obsessive compulsive disorder and other medical ailments. The victim was seated at the kitchen table when Jackson punched him in his left eye with such force that the victim suffered a ruptured globe. Though the eye was operated on at University of Maryland, he lost his sight in that eye. Jackson initially claimed that a cat had scratched the victim’s eye, but later admitted that she had hit the victim. Jackson was immediately terminated from employment at the facility.

Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge John M. Glynn has scheduled sentencing for April 20, 2005. First-degree abuse of a vulnerable adult is a felony and punishable by a maximum penalty of 10 years and a $10,000 fine.

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 and assisted living units.
 

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