N E W S R E L E A S E
ELIOT SPITZER
NEW YORK STATE ATTORNEY G E N E R A L
M E D I C AI D F R A U D C O N T R O L U NI T
CONTACT: KEVIN RYAN FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE:
212-417-5256 MONDAY, JUNE 1, 2004
NURSE CONVICTED OF PHYSICALLY ABUSING
ELDERLY PATIENT AT ST. LAWRENCE COUNTY NURSING HOME
Nursing Home Administrator Previously Admitted to Cover Up
Attorney General Eliot Spitzer today announced that an Ogdensburg City Court jury has
convicted Allen F. Jenner, a licensed practical nurse formerly employed at the St. Joseph Nursing
Home in Ogdensburg, of abusing an elderly female patient last year.
On May 25, after deliberating for less than two hours, the jury convicted Jenner of Wilful
Violation of Health Laws.
Judge George Silver, who presided at the two-day trial, set sentencing for August 9, 2004.
Jenner, 48, of 212 St. Lawrence Avenue in Ogdensburg, faces up to a year in prison.
Jenner was convicted of restraining an 85-year-old resident on April 13, 2003, by pressing
his right elbow into the resident's neck with such force that the resident’s head snapped violently
back, struck the back of the geri-chair in which she was sitting, and left a bruise on her neck. The
incident occurred while Jenner was performing a blood sugar glucose test on the resident.
In a related matter, Dale Legault, the former Director of Nursing and Acting Administrator
of the facility, previously admitted that he willfully failed to notify state officials that Jenner had
abused the patient, as required by state law. Although two nurse’s aides notified Legault of the
incident, he failed to investigate their allegations for more than a month or prepare an incident report
for the facility. Later, when confronted by state investigators, Legault fabricated a report that falsely
recorded that he had investigated the abuse immediately after it was reported to him.
Legault, 58, formerly of Waddington, New York, pleaded guilty on September 15, 2003, in
Ogdensburg City Court to Wilful Violation of Health Laws. He was sentenced to a three-year
conditional discharge.
St. Joseph Nursing Home is located at 420 Lafayette Street in Ogdensburg.
Special Assistant Attorney General Norman S. Hatt, of the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit’s
Syracuse Regional Office, prosecuted both cases. Assisting in the investigation was Senior
Investigator Thaddeus S. Kaczor.
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