Nursing Home Workers Sentenced For Making Patients Slippery

Two nursing home workers accused of rubbing down elderly patients with ointment so they would be "slippery" aren't going to slip out of serving time.

Monica Rose Smith, 52, and Jennifer Louise Burton, 34, have been sentenced to 20 days in county jail for orchestrating the 2009 incident involving seven patients with dementia at Valley View Skilled Nursing facility in Ukiah, Calif.

The duo were also placed on two years probation after being found guilty of misdemeanor charges of elder abuse, the Ukiah Daily Journal reported.

In addition, Jared Buckley was also found guilty of misdemeanor elder abuse, and ordered to serve 150 hours of community service and placed on two years probation. Two other defendants, ­ Jennie Bido and Christine Boyd-Guerrero, ­ were found guilty of failure to report elder abuse and received two years probation. They were ordered to perform 100 hours of community service each.

All five have had their nursing assistant licenses revoked by the state for crimes occurring in November 2009.

The nursing assistants were accused of creating a prank where they coated seven elderly patients from head to foot in ointment so they would be slippery when the staff for the next shift arrived, according to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.

The Mendocino County district attorney says none of the seven patients who were layered head to foot in the ointment was injured, according to AZcentral.com.

However, California Gov. Jerry Brown called the incident “cruel and shocking.”

Comments

[ralin52]

09:41 AM on 08/13/2011

Hidden cameras in all rooms, Get it all on tape.

[Westies]

09:32 AM on 08/13/2011

These punks were given a slap on the wrist. Those elderly patients could have slipped and broke a hip, ect. They endangered the patients to the extreme that if they did brake their hip it could have meant a death sentence. For that, they should have receive MUCH harsher punishment. It was not a laughing matter what they did.

[yellowrose3218]

09:26 AM on 08/13/2011

Dorian,, I know, I used to work for a nurse, who ran a entire floor in a well known hospital in Houston, and still does, after being caught taking pain meds from her own patience.
While her patience laid in bed in pain, she was using, and selling their medicine.
And we have to be careful of 'some' nurses as well. One was abusing my father while he laid dying in a local hospital. Thank goodness for cameras.
She doesnt have a job any more, and never will again as a nurse.
I learned to trust no one.

[Dorian Mode]

08:12 AM on 08/13/2011

Grandma's, in a home because nobody wants to take care of her. You want cheap, untrained labor to do the job that you are morally mandated to do yourselves. When you pay some one 7.45 an hour to take care of you love one, what kind of care do you get. Most of the people who work in nursing homes have criminal records, and really don't care about your family member. But when something happens to them you want to scream bloody murder. I hope it eases your conscience. If you think greasing up grandma is bad, wait until you hear what happen with their pain medication.

[deppers]

09:46 AM on 08/13/2011

Are you a health care worker? How do you all this that you can say it? Just asking

[Dorian Mode]

10:33 AM on 08/13/2011

Let's just say I'm an investigator who have been credited with putting many of them behind bars.

[anax13]

06:19 AM on 08/13/2011

This is disturbing. These crazy women take advantage of elderly people, it could be our grandmother, grandfather, mother, father. This needs to stay on their record forever, and they should never be allowed to work in this field again. SHAME ON THEM.

[Raymond Gould]

05:20 AM on 08/13/2011

LMFAO!

[Edward Kline]

03:05 AM on 08/13/2011

Just Wrong. Whats next Exlax

[fieryat41]

02:29 AM on 08/13/2011

I don't think prank is the right word. That was just stupid.

[vicoroni07]

02:21 AM on 08/13/2011

I went in for back surgery and was put to sleep by IV with out knowing it. Surgeon woke me up in OR.Said I need surgery right away for Diverticulitus, asked for treatment, he said no treatment.I fell asleep and woke up with all my large intestines gone and a hole 10" long.with no stitches.after 12 days they put me in a home.They gave me pills to make me go up and down. put something in my food to make it into rocks,Had a colostomy on.I did not eat any more, went to candy machine, they broke it.it went on for 7 months. A living hell! told Dr. he did nothing.seniors on Medicare and Medicaid are treated this way.is more to this but not enough room.

[Jimmy 61762]

07:09 AM on 08/13/2011

You seem like a constant complainer.I manage a senior facility and for you,Id prescribe sedatives to quiet you down.Xanax works well.
Dr. J.Goldstein

[vicoroni07]

05:25 AM on 08/14/2011

If you are a Dr. and you make such remarks about people you never met, then your proof of what I said about my nightmare in a nursing home. I guess you prescribe Xanax and other medicine to the people in your facility that just want to be treated kindly and HUMANLY. As far as myself and other people that went through it ( and some still are ) I think you are on the wrong side of health care. And you made the comment, about me, so I gave one back.

[vicoroni07]

05:30 AM on 08/14/2011

And one more thing Jimmy, you showed every one how you care about what went on in that nursing home, by not making a comment about the wrong they did.So take your pills and your comment and stuff it..

[Mary AC]

02:10 AM on 08/13/2011

This is what the world is coming to, uncaring, unfeeling, selfish, people taking care of those most in need of kindness. I am glad their licenses were taken away and I hope they will never be allowed to work in that profession ever. If we are lucky, we will all reach old age so we should do unto others as we would wish them to do to us.

[trueorfalse]

02:07 AM on 08/13/2011

Some prank! Just like those "crimes" committed at Abu Grabe. Soldiers received years in jail for their antics. The perps. ought to be really glad that none of the elderly fell, broke a hip or leg over their enjoyment. A broken hip is a death sentence for the elderly. The culprits should be tuned over the relatives of the "slippery elderly" for REAL JUSTICE.

[merkjones]

01:42 AM on 08/13/2011

20 Days jail time. 2 years sounds better. Then the probation..Creeps like these NON-human people do 20 days jail time as if a vacation. If it was the Judge's family member I would like to see the sentence!

[unlsinger]

01:27 AM on 08/13/2011

This makes me ill. The punishments for elder abuse need to match those of child abuse. Especially if the mental capacity of the victims is the same. I just hope there is some jailhouse justice in this case because this judge really failed. THE Judge of all of us will not be so lenient.

[mecow126]

12:53 AM on 08/13/2011

If animals were the victims, the punishment would be more severe.

[Jaguar8450]

11:02 PM on 08/12/2011

KInd of stupid as the other workers could have injured themselves, go out on sick leave, maybe collect workers comp while the numbnuts who did the oiling would then have double the work load.