New Jersey Nursing Home Sued for Alleged Failure to Protect Resident from Registered Sex Offender
A resident in a New Jersey nursing home, who is supposed to register as a sex offender was recently charged with molesting another resident in the nursing home. The victim is severely disabled due to cerebral palsy and is non-verbal. The resident is also accused of failing to properly register his current address under New Jersey’s Megan’s Law.
The family of the victim recently filed a lawsuit in the Superior Court of the county charging the nursing home’s administrators with failing to protect the resident.
Although staff members reported observing the accused resident attempting to assault the resident, the victim’s brother told police that he was not notified about the incident until three days later. The incident also was not reported to the police by the facility. Police were notified later when the accused resident was seen assaulting another resident as they both sat in their wheelchairs.
The accused was arrested and charged regarding the second assault and has since been transferred to another facility. The accused denied the assault when confronted.
According to the database of New Jersey’s Megan’s Law, the accused resident is listed as a Tier 2, repetitive compulsive sex offender following a 1985 conviction.
The attorney representing the family alleges that the nursing home failed to do mandatory reporting or research that would have brought the accused resident’s past history of assault to their attention. He also alleges that the facility also violated multiple statutes, e.g., the New Jersey Nursing Home Residents’ Bill of Rights, by its inadequate monitoring of residents. He termed the facility’s failure to notify authorities of the initial incident as “sweeping it under the rug.”
Compliance Perspective
Failure by a nursing home to ensure that a resident with a history of assault is carefully monitored to prevent harm to other residents in the facility, and failure to report incidents of assault may be considered infringement on residents’ rights to a safe environment that is free from abuse, neglect, and exploitation and be deemed provision of substandard quality of care, in violation of state and federal regulations.
Discussion Points:
- Review policies and procedures to ensure that the facility screens before admission to determine if any individual seeking placement is listed on a sex offender registry, and that plans are implemented to adequately monitor that resident, if admitted, in order to prevent harm to other residents.
- Train staff regarding the need to monitor residents with criminal histories of assault and to report any incident where assault occurs to the proper authorities.
- Periodically audit to determine if that pre-screening in the sex offender registry occurs for all new admissions.
