Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 6, 1991 TAG: 9104060498
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By LAURENCE HAMMACK/ STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Margaret Beatrice Jones, 32, pleaded no contest in Roanoke Circuit Court to a charge of unlawful wounding. She faces up to five years in prison and is to be sentenced later.
Jones was arrested in June, several weeks after officials at the Liberty House Nursing Home on King George Avenue Southwest discovered that 94-year-old Annie Wells had been beaten in her bed.
Wells suffered cuts and bruises, and her legs were broken after they apparently had been pulled through a metal bed rail.
Assistant Public Defender Jacqueline Talevi said Jones never intended to hurt Wells, but that she may have acted negligently when she tried to put the woman back into her bed after her legs became entangled in the bed rail.
In a statement to police, Jones said she "got aggravated" after being called into Wells' room to find the woman's feet sticking through a gap in the side bed rail.
"I got aggravated with her and I grabbed her and I pulled her back in the bed. . . . I pulled her legs through the railing. I pulled hard," Jones told police.
Jones said she panicked when she heard Wells' legs breaking, and that she may have cut or bruised her as she tried to push her back into bed.
Authorities had charged Jones with malicious wounding, which carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
But Wells has been unable to give a clear account of what happened - one reason why authorities reduced the charge to unlawful wounding, said Chief Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Betty Jo Anthony.
Had the case gone to trial, Talevi would have argued that Wells' age and poor health could have made her more susceptible to the injuries she suffered.
Wells, a frail woman who weighs about 90 pounds, spent 18 days at Lewis-Gale Hospital recovering from the injuries and now lives in another nursing home.
Her family has filed a $500,000 lawsuit against Liberty House and Jones. Among the allegations: The home failed to have a supervisor on the floor when the incident happened, failed to investigate Jones' background before she was hired and failed to properly train or supervise her.
Police began an investigation into Wells' injuries after an anonymous caller claimed to have witnessed the beating. But after failing to locate any witnesses, authorities were left only with Jones' statement.
Anthony has said that "major inconsistencies" in the statement suggested that there was more to the beating than Jones admitted.
In the statement to Detective N.W. Tolrud, Jones fluctuated between saying the injuries were accidental to admitting that she lost her patience with Wells, who she said was sometimes a demanding patient.
"Would it be fair to say [you] lost your temper?" Tolrud asked at one point in the interview.
"A little," Jones responded.
by CNB