Four staff members — three personal care assistants and one medical technician — were arrested and charged with abandonment of care after a vulnerable elderly resident wandered out of Brompton Heights assisted living facility and was found hours later in freezing temperatures in December 2017.

Brompton Heights Assisted Living (Amherst, NY) — Elderly Resident Left to Wander in Freezing Temperatures (2019)

Outcome: Four Brompton Heights staff members — personal care assistants George Stokes, LaQuanda Johnson, and Caprice Newbern, and medical technician Stephanie Shinault — were arrested in 2019 on charges of abandonment of care after a vulnerable elderly resident wandered out of the facility and was found hours later after being exposed to freezing outdoor temperatures overnight.

On the night of December 8-9, 2017, a vulnerable elderly resident of Brompton Heights assisted living facility in the Town of Amherst, New York, wandered undetected out of the building. The resident was found only after spending hours outdoors in freezing winter temperatures — a life-threatening situation directly caused by the abandonment of care obligations by multiple staff on duty.

New York Attorney General Letitia James announced the arrests in two waves: three staff were arrested and arraigned June 12, 2019, and Stokes was arrested and arraigned June 27, 2019. The case demonstrates one of the most serious recurring risks in assisted living: elopement of cognitively impaired residents due to staff inattention. New York regulations require assisted living providers to maintain adequate supervision to prevent residents from wandering into dangerous situations.

Primary Source: NY AG / OIG Enforcement Record