Former Caregiver Pleads Guilty to Abuse of a Vulnerable Adult

BALTIMORE, MD ( October 8, 2009) - Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler announced today that Colin Lee Gambill, 25, of Frederick pleaded guilty in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County to two counts of abuse of a vulnerable adult. Judge Ronald B. Rubin ordered a pre-sentence investigation and scheduled disposition in the case for December 10, 2009.

Gambill, a caregiver at a group home administered by the ARC of Carroll County, engaged in a series of physical abuses to two residents at the home for the developmentally disabled. On June 22, 2008, another caregiver at the group home used her cell phone to videotape Gambill repeatedly hitting one of the residents. When The ARC of Carroll County interviewed other caregivers about Gambill’s actions, they admitted witnessing numerous assaults that Gambill had perpetrated on the two residents beginning in November 2007 and continuing through June 2008. Gambill withheld food, gave the residents cold showers, and physically abused them for failing to comply with his wishes. He purposefully inflicted pain on them in order to generate a need for pain medications which would cause the residents to fall asleep, thereby requiring less work for Gambill.

This case was transferred from Carroll County to Montgomery County because one of the victims is related to a court officer in Carroll County. Abuse of a Vulnerable Adult is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. This case was prosecuted by the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the Maryland Attorney General’s Office who has authority to investigate and prosecute abuse and neglect of vulnerable adults in facilities that receive Medicaid funds and in assisted living facilities throughout the State of Maryland. In making today’s announcement, Attorney General Gansler thanked Assistant Attorney General Catherine S. Pascale and investigator Dean Brewer for their work on the case.