Nursing Home Employee Charged with Abuse
in Baltimore County

BALTIMORE, MD ( Sept. 23, 2011) - Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler announced today that Shirleen Diane Sheppard, a Baltimore City resident, has been indicted by the Grand Jury in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County on one count of Abuse of a Vulnerable Adult in the Second Degree, two counts of Neglect of a Vulnerable Adult in the Second Degree, and one count of Assault in the Second Degree. 

The charges stem from an alleged assault of an 82-year-old resident of Stella Maris, Inc., a care facility located in Timonium. Sheppard, 57, was serving as a geriatric nursing assistant at the facility when the alleged incident occurred on October 17, 2010.

Abuse and Neglect of a Vulnerable Adult are misdemeanors punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000.00 fine for each offense. The second degree assault charge, also a misdemeanor, carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison and a $2,500.00 fine. The case was investigated by the Office of the Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and Maryland State Police based on a referral from the Baltimore County Police Department.  Arraignment is scheduled for October 18, 2011 in Baltimore County Circuit Court.