Illinois Nursing Home Sweep Leads to Fugitive’s Arrest
A nursing home resident who is wanted by the law was arrested on June 24 during a compliance check raid on the Virgil Calvert Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in East St. Louis, Illinois. Rotherford Davis, 61, is wanted on a drug-possession charge.
The raid was part of Operation Guardian, a program that involves unannounced visits to nursing homes that allows officials to check whether an assisted living facility has any compliance and safety issues. The initiative, launched by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, is intended to protect nursing home patients.
Unfortunately, some criminals have been using Illinois assisted living facilities as safe houses where they can hide. It is a violation of the law for a nursing home operator to fail to identify that there is a fugitive living at a long-term care facility. Virgil Calvert’s owner did not know that Davis was a wanted man. However, nursing homes are supposed to conduct background checks on prospective residents and employees to determine whether they have criminal records and if any of them pose a danger to the other patients.
There are nursing home residents that have suffered severe injuries because they were sexually assaulted, physically assaulted, or murdered by a fellow resident or a nursing worker with a violent past. Many of these injuries and deaths could have been prevented if only the nursing home did their job by screening out dangerous people and implementing safety measures in the event that a resident with a violent record was admitted. Nursing homes can be held liable for Illinois nursing home negligence if their failure to act allowed a patient’s personal injuries or wrongful death to occur.
Since launching Operation Guardian last February, 12 Illinois nursing homes have been inspected during these unannounced visits. Police have found 61 people that are wanted on arrest warrants for crimes ranging from disorderly conduct to attempted murder to sexual offenses. 12 arrests have been made. Many arrests could not be made because the patients were too sick to be transported from the facility or there were geographic limits to the warrants. According to Madigan’s deputy chief of Staff Kara Madigan, every raid has turned up at least one person wanted by the law.
Our Chicago, Illinois nursing home neglect and abuse lawyers very familiar with the harm residents can suffer when living alongside residents that have raped or murdered in the past.
Fugitive arrested in raid on nursing home, BND.com, June 25, 2010
Shocking Number of Fugitives Hiding in East St. Louis Nursing Homes, RiverFront Times, June 25, 2010
Related Web Resources:
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan
Contact Chicago Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Attorney Steve Malman.
