A New York appeals court is dropping the sentences for three former nursing home employees who were convicted for their roles in a resident’s 2012 death.
In three separate decisions issued Feb. 20, a panel of judges deemed that former caregivers’ sentences should be dropped “in the interest of justice.”
Kethlie Joseph, Kimberly Lappe and Marriane Fassino were all employees of the Medford Multicare Center for Living in Medford, NY, and were among nine employees charged following the 2012 death of a 72-year-old resident, Newsday reported Wednesday.
Prosecutors alleged that Joseph, a respiratory therapist, did not follow a doctor’s orders and failed to put the resident on a ventilator. Lappe, Fassino and other employees, meanwhile, ignored alarms, signaling that the resident was in respiratory distress, and attempted to cover up their roles in her death afterward.
Judges agreed to cut the jail sentence for Fassino from six months to three. Lappe, also a nurse, will see her sentence drop from 15 months to six. The probationary period for all three workers was also eliminated, Newsday reported.
The trio are set to appear before New York Supreme Court Justice John Collins March 11, when the judge can impose new sentences.
