By Kimberly McMillian
Correspondent
DAYTON, Tenn. — Employees at the Life Care Centers of America nursing home in Dayton didn’t question or stop a stranger who walked into the building at 4:30 a.m., smoked crack in a bathroom and raped an elderly woman patient, according to a lawsuit against the nursing home company.
The family of the 88-year-old woman filed the suit this week in Cleveland, Tenn., against Life Care Centers of America Inc. The suit seeks $750,000 in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages for “intentional, fraudulent, malicious and reckless negligence” on the part of the nursing home.
Beecher Hunter, president of Life Care Centers of America, said in an e-mailed statement Thursday that the company has stepped up training and security since the May 10 attack.
Mr. Hunter said exit doors have been inspected and locks replaced and the home now has a night receptionist and security officer who patrols the building.
“We are dedicated to providing high quality care each and every resident we serve,” Mr. Hunter said in the statement.
According to the lawsuit, a man walked through the unlocked front door at about 4:30 a.m., wearing a dirty T-shirt and flannel pajama pants.
When a nurse questioned him, he said he was looking for “Miss Jones.” The nurse said there was no such patient in that part of the home and motioned him toward another section, the suit states.
Thereafter, several employees saw the man roaming the building and some told the nurse repeatedly to call the police, but she didn’t, the suit states.
After 22 minutes, the man was spotted coming out of the room of a partially paralyzed dementia patient. He left the building and drove away unhindered, the suit states. When staff entered the room at 4:55 a.m., they found the woman undressed and saw signs of assault, but they didn’t call police until 5:40 a.m., the suit states.
Dayton Police officer Josh Jordan was at the nursing home within minutes but was unable to get a coherent response from the patient because of her mental and physical condition, the suit states.
Police found and questioned Zephaniah “Nicky” Cooper, who confessed to smoking “three or four crack rocks” in a bathroom and then assaulting the woman, the complaint states.
Life Care’s “failure to have security” in place and to train their employees properly to ask questions when the suspect entered the facility contributed to the assault, said Carol Ann Barron, the family’s attorney.
Ms. Barron said that if visitors were asked to show identification before they entered at odd hours, this “terrible tragedy” might not have occurred.
Mr. Cooper has been arraigned on a charge of rape.
A preliminary hearing will be held on June 22, District Attorney Mike Taylor said.
Kimberly McMillian is based in Rhea County. Contact her at kdj424@bellsouth.net.