New Jersey residents might be startled to hear about the case of an administrator at an Iowa nursing home who was fined $500 for failing to protect the residents of the home from a convicted sex offender. One of the residents of the nursing home was a convicted sex offender, and the Iowa Board of Nursing Home Administrators alleged that the administrator of the nursing home should have known that the man posed a threat to other residents. He allegedly sexually assaulted a 95-year-old woman who was a resident at the home.
The administrator is accused of professional incompetence during her time as administrator of the home from September 1983 through October 2011. State inspectors also alleged that the administrator had warned other employees of the nursing home that if they told anyone that the man and another convicted sex offender were living in the nursing home that they would be fired. The woman agreed to pay a $500 fine in connection with the premises liability action.
She also agreed to notify the board of any violations that occurred in the nursing home facilities that she manages for the next year, train nursing home workers on how to deal with sex offenders and complete 20 hours of continuing education. The woman maintained that she didn't do anything wrong but had to accept the responsibility as the administrator of the facility. She said that the settlement was merely done in an attempt to avoid the expense of a hearing.
People who are sexually assaulted in a nursing home facility might be able to seek restitution from the facility since it failed to protect them. Likewise, personal injury attorneys may be able to help the family members of people who were sexually assaulted file lawsuits against the facilities that allegedly fell short of its responsibilities to the residents.