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Collin County deputies say that a woman who was working at Loving Care Home was posing as a registered nurse when she allegedly sexually assaulted an elderly patient at the assisted living facility.
44-year-old Glenda Basanes is accused of sexually assaulting a 92-year-old female patient at the facility on June 21. According to court records, Basanes is accused of grabbing the woman's buttocks and shaking her. The patient told police that this caused pain throughout her entire back.
According to the Collin County Sheriff's Office, Basanes worked at Loving Care Home in Lucas for 64 days and falsely represented herself as a registered nurse. Investigators determined that she was not licensed. Basanes is also accused of slapping the facility's owner on the buttocks.
Basanes has been charged with assault for both alleged incidents and faces another charge related to misrepresenting herself as a registered nurse.
According to Kelly Sparks, one of the owners of Loving Care Home, Basanes applied to be a resident aide and later told the owners that she was an RN. Sparks claims that an online database system was down for maintenance when her husband tried to confirm that Basanes was licensed as a nurse.
Basanes was fired on June 21 and investigators began receiving criminal complaints about the former employee the next day. She was arrested on June 28.
Texas Health and Human Services officials are investigating allegations of residents being sexually abused at Loving Care Home. Investigators went to the facility on July 2.
Texas law requires state-licensed long-term care facilities to check the Nurse Aide Registry and Employee Misconduct Registry before hiring an employee. They also must check these registries once per year to make sure the employee has not been barred from working in the state because of abuse, neglect, or exploitation allegations.
Attorney Anjali Nigam represents sexual assault victims and their families in civil lawsuits. Here is some general information from Anjali regarding the legal options available to those who have been sexually assaulted in senior living facilities and nursing homes:
Nursing homes have a legal duty to make sure their residents are safe from neglect and abuse, including sexual violence. Sadly, the elderly and other vulnerable groups are often targeted by sexual predators. These businesses have a crucial responsibility to make sure that all employees are trustworthy people and that no predators are hired due to negligence, such as the failure to run a background check.
Many cases of nursing home abuse and neglect involve negligence by the facility. For example, a nursing home might be considered negligent for the abuse of residents if they failed to verify the abuser's credentials before hiring them. In cases of negligence, the victims and their families often have the right to file a lawsuit.
If you or a loved one has suffered due to sexual abuse in a nursing home, you can learn more about your family's legal options by speaking with an experienced sex abuse victims attorney in a free consultation.
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