Teens Face Charges Of Sexual, Physical Abuses On Nursing Home Elderly

December 2, 2008 11:53 p.m. EST

Albert Lea, MN (AHN) - Two teen caregivers have been charged with physical, sexual and emotional abuse of 15 Alzheimer's disease and dementia patients at a Minnesota nursing home.

Four other teen staff of the Good Samaritan Society of Albert Lea were also charged Monday before the Freeborn County District Court for failing to report the abuses, including spitting water into a resident's mouth and touching residents' genitals and breast to arouse or make them angry.

Charged by the Freeborn County Attorney's Office were Brianna Marie Broitzman, 19, Ashton Michelle Larson, 18, Alicia Heilmann, 18, and Morgan Walton, 18. The two other teen's names were not available. All are graduates of Albert Lea High School.

Police received reports of the abuses in May and an investigation followed. The result of the investigation contained in a report from the Minnesota Department of Health and released on Aug. 28 indicated that the abuses were committed from January to May.

In the report, Broitzman admitted poking residents in the breast and taking photos of them. In one incident, she put her bare rear end in one resident's face.

The Alberta Lea Tribune quoted the report as saying that Larson admitted "spitting water on a resident, lying in bed with a resident, touching a resident on the buttocks, inserting her finger into a resident's rectum, antagonizing a resident, humping a resident and putting her hand over a resident's mouth because that resident would scream." She also rubbed residents' genitals to sexually arouse them.

The two also spanked a resident, teased a resident and poked residents in the genitals. Both faces one year jail terms and $3,000 fines for every abuse they committed.