TARGET 11: Pa. nursing homes not required to notify patients, families when sex offenders move in

2-10-16 Pennsylvania:

PITTSBURGH — While some states have passed laws requiring nursing homes to notify patients and families when a registered sex offender moves in, a Target 11 investigation revealed that no such law exists in Pennsylvania.

Staff at the nursing homes may not even know because the state only notifies them when a sexually violent predator moves in.

Target 11's Rick Earle took the addresses of nursing homes and cross referenced them to the addresses of registered sex offenders on the Megan’s Law website in order to find which local nursing homes have sex offenders as residents.

Norman Carl Nelson, who was convicted of rape in 1989, is one local sex offender who lists his address as a nursing home in Wilkinsburg.

Stacie Coates, who worked at the nursing home for several months, said she didn’t know Nelson was a registered sex offender.

“I had heard there was few in there. (But) I didn't know for sure,” she told Earle.

While it doesn’t bother her to learn that she was working around a sex offender, Coates said she would think twice about putting a loved one in the home.

“Well, now that I know that, I probably wouldn't,” she said. “I wouldn't do that.”

Others Earle found on the Megan’s Law website living at local nursing homes included Walter William Boyd on Pittsburgh’s North Side, John Thomas Spencer in Monroeville, Peary Lee Weikel in Beaver and John Robert Randall in Cranberry Township.

“They talk about it being the only crime they don't age out of. Also I'm assuming if someone's in a nursing home, they're health is compromised. So I guess it would be interesting to see how mobile they are, how ambulatory they are,” Alison Hall, with Pittsburgh Action Against Rape, said.

A study by “A Perfect Cause,” a nursing home advocacy group, in 2005 found that there were 1,600 registered sex offenders in long-term care facilities across the country, and they documented more than 60 crimes, including rapes and assaults.

Target 11 reached out to all of the local nursing home where sex offenders were found to be living but only heard back from the North Side location, which issued the following statement:

“We do not feel that any patients, staff or visitors are currently at risk. If the possible issue of a sexual predator residing in the facility occurred, we would communicate the information to our families and residents while protecting patient privacy.”

Target 11 spoke with Pittsburgh attorney Rob Peirce, who handles elderly and nursing home abuse cases, about what advice he’d offer to those looking to place a loved one in a nursing home.

“It's simple for someone to go and look at the facility. Is it clean? Is it dirty? But you can't just put a loved one in a convenient location,” he said. “You must look into the background of that facility as best you can, the employees and who may be staying there.”

As for the reliance of the self-reporting Megan’s Law website, law enforcement officials told Earle that they do random compliance checks.

Last year alone, officers checked more than 2,000 addresses across Pennsylvania and found only 40 offenders who were not in compliance. Police said the non-compliance rate stands at less than 2 percent. ..Source.. by WPIX.com

Gas tax, elderly sex offenders are forum topics

12-7-2013 Iowa:

Gowrie Care Center fine spurs discussion

The reported presence of a sex offender in another area nursing home has a pair of local lawmakers vowing to find more secure ways to house such individuals.

But state Rep. Helen Miller, D-Fort Dodge, said Saturday morning that a push from the public will be necessary to get the job done.

''If you want something done about it, you need to get engaged and make it happen,'' she said during an Eggs and Issues forum.

The secure housing of elderly sex offenders became a topic of discussion at the forum in the wake of a published report that the Gowrie Care Center was fined $2,150 by the federal government for failing to properly supervise such an individual.

Dale Gould, the administrator of the care center, declined to talk about the situation when contacted by phone late Saturday morning.

''My instructions, sir, are that I cannot comment on that,'' he said.

The fine was reportedly levied by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Efforts to reach a spokesperson for that agency were unsuccessful Saturday.

The Gowrie incident, which reportedly involved an 86-year-old man who has three sex crime convictions, marks the second time that a sex offender was reported to be in a local nursing home. In 2011, William Cubbage, a sex offender who was then 83, allegedly raped a 95-year-old woman in the Pomeroy Care Center, where both he and the woman lived.

Care center fined over supervision of sex offender

12-6-2013 Iowa:

The Gowrie nursing home has been cited twice in 3 months for failing to protect residents.

A central Iowa nursing home has been fined for failing to protect residents from a registered sex offender for the second time in three months.

Eighty-year-old sex offender John Steinkamp was found in bed with another resident at the Gowrie Care Center on Sept. 27 — and that resident alleged the two had just engaged in some type of sexual activity.

That incident prompted the the federal government’s Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services to impose a fine of $50 for each day the Gowrie Care Center failed to comply with health and safety regulations related to its supervision of Steinkamp. The daily fine was lifted Nov. 18, resulting in a total penalty of $2,150.

The home’s owner, Bruce H. Mehlhop of Johnston’s Signature Care Centers, said the incident involving Steinkamp “did not result in any actual harm or negative outcome to any residents of the facility.”

He said Gowrie Care Center has “implemented additional procedures” to come into compliance with minimum care standards for its 30 residents.

Iowa policymakers have been struggling with the issue of sex offenders in care facilities since 2011, when The Des Moines Register started reporting on problems related to the 42 offenders living in Iowa’s care facilities for the elderly and disabled.

Steinkamp has lived at the Gowrie Care Center since February 2011. He has three convictions for lascivious acts with children, the most recent from 2008.

State records show that earlier this year the home updated Steinkamp’s care plan to include staff awareness of his whereabouts at all times. The plan also called for an alarm on the door to his room, so the staff would know when he left.

A separate “Sex Offender Safety Plan” called for 30-minute status checks on his location in the home.

But in August, state inspectors visited the home and watched as Steinkamp observed and then moved toward a visiting child who was in the home playing catch with a staffer.

The inspector intervened and the state then imposed a $500 fine for failing to follow its safety plan.

Placement of elderly sex offenders can be a challenge

1-22-2011 Georgia:

As the number of registered sex offenders continues to expand, so have the laws surrounding their classifications, generally making it more difficult for the offenders to fall off the registry.

While on the active registry, offenders are not permitted to live in certain areas, like near schools or day cares, but there are no clear rules for senior centers or nursing homes.

Ohio Rep. Andy Thompson, R-Marietta, said no one wants to think of their mother or grandmother sharing a room or a wing at a nursing home with a sex offender. He said he has heard some recent talk in the news and legislature about addressing the issue.

"I'm very much concerned about the residents of these homes because they are very vulnerable," Thompson said. "But you have to be careful about this."

Thompson said at a certain age or medical condition, some sex offenders may no longer be a danger to others. For example, he said, if a person is confined to a bed, they should probably not be considered a risk to others.

Washington County sheriff's Sgt. Patrice Tornes, who monitors the area's 134 registered sex offenders, said she would have mixed feelings about a proposal to limit access to nursing homes. Thirteen of the county's sex offenders are over age 60, with the oldest turning 91 this year.

Tornes said she believes most of the area's nursing homes will not admit a registered sex offender. There is one sex offender currently residing at the Washington County Home, although the center has a clear policy against such individuals staying there. The woman is 41 and was convicted of rape and gross sexual imposition of a teenage boy.

"She was living there before the policy change and kind of grandfathered in," Tornes said.

Tornes said she has had two other cases where individuals on the sex offender registry have needed assisted living care. She said those individuals were turned away when the local facilities learned of their sex offender status.

"Neither experience was pleasant," Tornes said. "One gentleman was given just a short time to live and needed to be put in a facility in the area. Because he required community notification be issued, the facilities all turned him away. I tried to get an emergency meeting with a judge, because I think everyone is entitled to care, but he died before I got before the judge."

In the other case, Tornes said, a local nursing home determined a man was a sex offender then packed his belongings, took him out front and called a taxi.

"I thought that seemed out of line, but they obviously don't want sex offenders there, especially if they require community notification," she said.

No administrators of local nursing or assisted living centers returned phone calls seeking comment. ..Source.. Brad Bauer by