Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 28, 1994 TAG: 9405310161
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
After hearing that account Friday from two people who stopped to help, a Roanoke judge convicted Harriett C. Martin of assault and neglecting an incapacitated adult.
General District Judge George Harris sentenced Martin to 12 months in jail for the attack on Dottie Cash, one of three residents under Martin's care.
Because Cash suffers from Alzheimer's disease and was unable to testify, the case against Martin rested on the testimony of two motorists who stopped to help.
Margaret Morgan and Timmy Pentecost said they were driving on Cove Road near the Roanoke County line about 4:30 p.m. May 11 when they saw an elderly woman sitting on the edge of the pavement, with a younger woman standing over her.
Morgan testified that Martin was screaming at the older woman and kicking her toward the ditch.
``The lady was crying and saying, `Help me. Help me,''' Morgan testified.
At the same time, Martin was waving motorists on. ``She was saying it was nobody's business,'' Morgan testified.
After driving home to call police, Morgan returned to find that Pentecost had stopped and put Cash in his car. Pentecost testified that Cash's leg was bleeding from cuts and scrapes she suffered.
Martin, 42, maintained she was only trying to get Cash out of the road and back to safety after the elderly woman walked away from the home's back yard.
``I was just trying to get her back to the house,'' Martin said. ``That's my job - to protect her and help her - and that's what I did.''
Martin admitted she got ``a little loud'' when Cash struggled with her. But, she said, ``I didn't kick her. I was using my foot to push her.''
At the time of the incident, Martin had been working for about three weeks at the adult home run by Marcia Hancock. Because the home has fewer than four residents, it is not required to be licensed, according to Chief Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Betty Jo Anthony.
In 1992, Hancock was cited for having too many residents in the home, plus other violations that included unnecessary use of a restraint vest on one resident.
Social workers also have claimed that Hancock went to great lengths to hide residents from them during inspections and said they suspected that she once put residents in a shed behind her house.
A Roanoke County judge fined Hancock $5,000 for the violations in 1992.
Although Cash was not injured seriously in the May 11 incident, she has remained in the hospital since then, a relative said.
Assistant Public Defender Eric Frith said Martin plans to appeal the convictions. She was allowed to remain free on bond after Friday's hearing.
The case was believed to be the first time that Roanoke officials have used a law passed in 1992 that makes it a misdemeanor - punishable by up to 12 months in jail - for a caretaker to neglect or abuse an incapacitated adult.
Harris cited Morgan's and Pentecost's testimony in convicting Martin and praised them for their efforts.
"We as citizens of the Roanoke Valley have to look out for one another," he said.
by CNB