A New York jury has acquitted three former nursing home workers of homicide charges stemming from allegations that they ignored alarms warning of a disconnected ventilator.
Jurors reached their verdict on Monday, their fourth day of deliberations. While the former county employees dodged felony negligent homicide chargers, however, each still faces possible misdemeanor counts of violating public health laws. One defendant, Martine Morland, could still be charged with two felony counts of falsifying business records, Newsday reported Monday.
The case in question relates to the death of Carmela Contrera, an 81-year-old resident of the A. Holly Patterson Extended Care Facility, in Uniondale, NY. In December 2015, the 81-year-old became disconnected from her respirator, and registered nurses Sijimole Reji and Annieamma Augustine, and CNA Morland allegedly heard the alarms indicating the disconnection, but they waited nine minutes to intervene. There were 2,000-plus alerts in a 24-hour period when the situation occurred, likely causing alarm fatigue, the defendants’ attorneys argued in court.
With the jury only returning a partial verdict on Monday, Acting State Supreme Court Justice Robert Schwartz told jurors to return Tuesday to continue deliberations. The outcome of those discussion was not known as of McKnight’s production deadline Tuesday night. Both Reji and Augustine were also acquitted of charges that they falsified business records.
Lawyers for the three argued that the alarm did not sound throughout the entire unit, and no alerts could be heard in the background during the recording of the original 911 call. They also alleged that the county-owned nursing facility was understaffed, with employees “set up to fail.”
