Shawna Rogers
Michele Curry
Kacey Allen
A bedridden, 84-year-old woman at a county-owned rehabilitation facility in Centre, Ala., was left unattended for 11 hours while ants bit her an estimated 100 times, officials with the state attorney general’s office said.
The September 2016 incident led to criminal charges for three employees of the Cherokee County Health and Rehabilitation Center next door to the county health department on Cedar Bluff Road.
Michele Curry, a 42-year-old licensed practical nurse from Centre, and certified nursing assistants Kacey Allen, 28, of Centre, and Shawna Rogers, 26, of Rome, Ga., each were charged Friday with second-degree elder abuse/neglect, according to a statement from Alabama Attorney General Steven T. Marshall. The state office’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit presented evidence resulting in indictments issued Feb. 15 by the Cherokee County grand jury.
Investigators say Curry, Allen and Rogers were responsible for the woman’s care the night of Sept. 3, 2016, and into the next morning when the bugs attacked the bedridden octogenarian.
“They all charted that they had entered the room numerous times throughout the night. A review of the surveillance video showed none of the three entered the room for approximately 11 hours,” Marshall said in the statement. “When the resident was checked on it was discovered that she had suffered approximately 100 ant bites.”