Nursing home aide accused of abuse
But she disputes colleagues' reports
A nurse's aide at a Franklin nursing home is accused of abusing patients over a 14-month period, beating a 78-year-old man bloody with a hairbrush and roughly handling a 105-year-old woman until she screamed for her life.
Prosecutors say that Bernadette Stackpole's maltreatment of four elderly patients suffering from Alzheimer's and dementia was criminal. Those allegations are based on the accounts of her colleagues at the Franklin Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center from February 2003 and May 2004.
Stackpole pleaded not guilty yesterday. During her arraignment in Norfolk Superior Court, Assistant Attorney General Bruce Anderson described sexual abuse and beatings that Stackpole allegedly administered to patients in her care that were witnessed by seven colleagues who eventually reported it to nursing home officials.
The Department of Public Health has suspended Stackpole's right to work in residential facilities, and she was fired in May by the Franklin center. However, a health department spokeswoman said that the allegations against Stackpole have not prompted the agency to alter the satisfactory report card for the facility posted on its website.
''The [annual] inspection found that it was a well-run facility," said spokeswoman Nicole St. Peter. ''We believe that Ms. Stackpole was abusing residents, and now that she's gone, it would appear the residents should feel secure."
Bail was set at $500 cash for Stackpole, 53, of Bellingham. She had worked at the Franklin facility for 15 years.
Anderson told the court that one of the more egregious incidents involved Stackpole grabbing a 105-year-old female resident by the ankles and pulling her legs up over her head as if she were changing an infant's diapers. The woman allegedly screamed: ''I'm going to die! I'm going to die!"
Yet, according to DPH, the Franklin facility earned a similar passing grade, meeting 128 out of 132 standards, in 2004 and 2003, when court records allege that Stackpole was abusing patients. Those reports will not be amended, St. Peter said.
''The facility at that time did live up to the standards," St. Peter said of the report card. ''It's not reflective of a person; it's reflective of the overall quality of care at the facility . . . The facility did act, once they were made aware of the allegations of abuse."
According to St. Peter, once other staff members reported the allegations against Stackpole, the facility contacted the DPH, which conducted its own inquiry and found the accusations valid.
In a telephone interview from his Florida home, Stackpole's husband, Michael J. Stackpole, said he did not believe that the woman he has known for 17 years is capable of the abuses that prosecutors described.
''She's not a violent woman; she's not a mean person," said Michael Stackpole, who has lived apart from Stackpole for the past seven years. But he is in frequent contact with her, he said.
''Knowing the woman as I do, for as long as I have, I find it impossible to believe," he added.
Michael Stackpole said his wife has never faced disciplinary action during her years at the Franklin facility.
''In fact, there were many cases when relatives would bring in flowers and candy for her because of the job she was doing," he said.
Andre D. Summers, Stackpole's lawyer, said she was one of four nursing assistants caring for more than 40 patients who had dementia or Alzheimer's. She was responsible for assisting them with all activities of daily living, including eating, dressing, and toilet functions.
''This is the most difficult ward," he said. ''It was more the norm that these individuals would desire not to have showers. It was her responsibility to see that these individuals were cleaned."
Summers also said that the colleagues who are offering testimony have biases against Stackpole stemming from personal disagreements.
Assistant Attorney General Nicholas Messuri, chief of the Medicaid Fraud Unit, said that difficult patients do not justify abuse. ''There is absolutely no excuse for the allegations that she's been accused of," he said.
Messuri said investigators are looking into why the allegedly long-running abuse was not noticed or reported earlier and whether changes need to be made to protect patients at the facility.
Linea McQuay, director of operations for
Franco Ordoez can be reached at fordonez@globe.com; John Ellement at ellement@globe.com. 