Woman Waterboarded: Police Arrest Jermeller Steed and Cicely Reed For Mock-Drowning On Elderly Patient
Two nursing home employees in Georgia were arrested for allegedly attacking an elderly woman in a "manner similar to waterboarding," according to local police.
Waterboarding is the controversial interrogation technique that was used by the CIA to extract information from terrorism suspects, but in this case two caregivers supposedly tortured an 89-year-old woman with whom they'd argued.
Police claim that Cicely Reed and Jermeller Steed held down Anna Foley, who has severe dementia, and sprayed water from a shower in her face to make it seem like she was drowning, TV station WGCL reports.
The attack, which occurred in 2008 the station says, began when Reed and Steed argued with Foley over ice cream. The workers allegedly confined Foley to a shower room and they held her hands and wrists, according to The Daily Mail, while they used water from the shower nozzle to obstruct her breathing. The arrest warrant described the incident as "similar to waterboarding."
Both women were charged with false imprisonment and battering a patient, according to a Clayton County Sheriff's Department spokesman. A grand jury indicted them on Nov. 17, the spokesman told HuffPost.
A co-worker at the Jonesboro facility witnessed the attack and reported the incident.
Waterboarding was a controversial interrogation technique authorized by the Bush administration after 9/11. A suspect would be strapped to a board so that his feet were raised higher than his head. Water is poured over the suspect's head and triggers a panic response that people experience when drowning.
President Obama banned the measure in 2009 and called it a form of torture.
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First Posted: 11/21/11 02:42 PM ET Updated: 11/21/11 07:47 PM ET