Elder Abuse: Nursing Home Patient Died Before Case could go to Grand Jury (Tx. USA)

Nursing home patient who may have been abused died before case could go to grand jury

By DEANNA BOYD
Sun, Aug. 24, 2008


FORT WORTH — Seated across from a Fort Worth police detective one February afternoon last year, Elaine Doores, a retired biology professor diagnosed two years earlier with Alzheimer’s, struggled to find the right words.

Her choices were childish, but they suggested a horrific crime.

"He has hurt me a lot. Every time he bathes me. He puts things in me.  . . . He had sex with me more than once. It’s all the time in the bath."

The 68-year-old woman’s statement set in motion an investigation that led to the arrest of Donald Gene Shelby, a certified nursing assistant at the James L. West Alzheimer’s Center, just outside downtown Fort Worth, where Doores had been living.

Shelby, who remains free on bail, has denied any wrongdoing, and his attorney, Mark Daniel, said his client passed a polygraph test. On June 6, Doores died — her case still not having gone to the grand jury.

Her daughter says the district attorney’s office stalled in handling the case.

Kristin Pitt understands that because of her mother’s illness and a lack of physical evidence, a grand jury could deem the case weak and decline to indict Shelby.

"They sat on it while the victim got worse," Pitt said. "That’s the disservice they did to my mom and my family."

She believes that prosecutors dealing with victims who have dementia or Alzheimer’s should try to present the case to a grand jury without delay.

"To not even give a standard time frame of taking it to a grand jury is ridiculous," Pitt said. "Push it forward so that these individuals can try to protect themselves, because they’re very vulnerable."

Deputy District Attorney Greg Miller said he has looked into the case.

"We should have presented it to the grand jury probably in late 2007 or early 2008," Miller said. "This case, regrettably, wasn’t addressed in a timely manner, and we have taken some in-house steps to ensure that situations like this do not occur in the future." He said the case will go to a grand jury soon.

Difficult cases
Paul Greenwood, a deputy district attorney over the Elder Abuse Prosecution Unit in San Diego, said sexual assault cases involving Alzheimer’s patients at nursing homes can be difficult to prosecute.

Depending on the extent of their illness, victims can be ruled incompetent. Even if a victim can testify, jurors may have a "built-in bias" regarding the credibility of a victim who has a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s or dementia, Greenwood said.

And because victims can be reluctant to immediately report the assault for fear of their attacker, the chances of having physical evidence in the case can be greatly reduced, he said.

"Of all the cases I have prosecuted — in the hundreds over the last 12 years — the kind of case that presents the most problems is allegations of sexual assault in a facility where probably the only witness of the crime is the victim herself," Greenwood said.

Still, he said, prosecutors should strive to proceed with such cases as quickly as possible.

"I think with all elderly victims, time is of the essence," Greenwood said. "It’s not healthy to delay decisions."

Abridged
SOURCE: Fort Worth Star Telegram
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