Nearly six years after a patient died inside the Psychiatric Institute of Washington, three former employees have been indicted on a charge of criminal negligence.
Two of the three were working as psychiatric counselors and the other was a registered nurse when prosecutors say the three neglected to help a 58-year-old man who was clearly in distress.
The three former employees, 37-year-old Nelson Kuma, 45-year-old Richard Hounnou and 68-year-old Norma Munoz-Bent made their first appearances in D.C. Superior Court Tuesday. They all pleaded not guilty and were released on their own recognizance.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro described what was captured on video back on April 26, 2020 during a Wednesday news conference at the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“This trio did nothing to help this patient. They didn’t check him, they didn’t reposition him, they didn’t turn him, they didn’t call a code blue, they didn’t check his pulse, they didn’t attempt CPR, they didn’t initiate resuscitation efforts, they did nothing,” she said. “Instead, they chatted, they walked around, they didn’t touch him while he lay on a mattress — dying.”
The incident was investigated by Disabilities Rights D.C., which issued a lengthy report on the incident, but for reasons that are still unclear, it never rose to the level of prosecution until now.
The U.S. attorney says a prosecutor in her office had been tracking the case for years, but when asked why it did not become a criminal case until now, Pirro declined to say other than it’s being handled now.
The man who died is only being identified by his initials, and, according to the U.S. attorney, had a medical emergency two days before his death and had to be resuscitated. She said he was supposed to have one-on-one care at the facility because of his condition.
Disability Rights D.C. issued a 2021 public report detailing what it calls a lack of oversight at the Psychiatric Institute of Washington. The report includes sketches of the incident. Disability Rights D.C. says the sketches were drawn based off of video tape footage from inside the patent’s hospital room.
There are still many questions in this case and why it took so long for prosecutors to get an indictment.
Pirro said, “The three had a legal and ethical duty to act and they chose not to and my office is not going to tolerate this.
from Local – NBC4 Washington https://ift.tt/HrnZQ9p
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