Virginia nursing home supervisor refuses to take blame for abuse

If elderly nursing home patients are sexually abused while you are a supervisor, and subordinates claim that you knew about it and failed to act, how do you defend yourself?

In the case of Helen Roberts, it seems that you blame everyone but yourself for the elder sexual assault.

Roberts, in an informal licensing hearing before the Virginia Board of Nursing, claimed that employees who testified that she knew of the abuse but failed to act were themselves poor employees.  Roberts labeled her accusers as gossips, drama queens and incompetents.

So what really happened?  No one will ever know for sure, but investigators compiled ample evidence against James Wright, a former nursing home aide currently serving 60 years in jail for assaulting two patients in 2007.  Earlier this year he was convicted on four counts of aggravated sexual battery.

Had this licensing hearing been a formal hearing, witnesses and investigators would have been able to testify.  However, the informal nature of the hearing allowed Roberts to skewer the witnesses, and leave herself blameless for what happened while she was acting supervisor.

The board decided to let Roberts off easy.  She was ordered to attend nationally sanctioned nursing classes for documentation in addition to taking classes on professional accountability.  That’s it.

Nothing like justice being served for sexually abused nursing home victims.