The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, July 02, 1981, Image 6

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    Page 6
THE BATTALION
THURSDAY, JULY 2, 1981
Nursing home investigated
Murder by fraud charged
United Press International
GALVESTON — A Galveston
County grand jury returned 38 in
dictments charging a Houston-
based nursing home and eight of
its former and present employees
with murder by fraud for the
deaths of eight patients at a Texas
City nursing home.
Tuesday’s indictments replace
23 indictments handed down in
March by another grand jury
against Autumn Hills Convales
cent Center Inc. The employees
named in the indictment are
charged with the deaths of one
man and seven Women during a
13-month period from March 7,
1978 to April 5, 1979.
The grand jury described what
it had learned as a “horror story.”
Galveston County District
Attorney James Hury said the new
indictments are “more complete”
than the original ones and will
strengthen the state’s case against
the defendants. The case is ex
pected to go to trial in October.
“The idea of what happened has
not changed, but there are certain
other avenues to reach the same
conclusion,” Hury said Tuesday.
The case is the first murder pro
secution of a corporation in the
country’s history. The new legal
strategy alleges the defendants
fraudulently appropriated govern
ment funds for medical care that
SEPTEMBER 12
MCAT
wag not delivered, which prosecu
tors claim was an act “clearly dan
gerous to human life.”
The new indictments, totaling
about 1,200 pages, named the Au
tumn Hills Convalescent Center
Inc., three present employees and
five former employees as defen
dants.
Austin attorney Roy Minton,
representing the home and four of
the employees, said his clients will
plead innocent. Lawyers said it is
the first case they’ve heard of
where the murder was based on a
non-violent felony.
Eight of the 38 indictments
named the convalescent center;
eight were against Ron Pohl-
meyer, vice president in charge of
operations of the corporation;
eight against Mattie Locke, head
nurse for the corporation; four
against Virginia Wilson, nurse
administrator; three against Cas
sandra Canlas, registered nurse;
I ocIht Itooni
v
w*
S:
THERE’S STILL
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Call Days Evenings & Weekends
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TEST PREPARATION
SPECIALISTS SINCE 1938
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JULY 12.
For more information, call
696-3196
SPORTSHOCS UNLIMITED
800 Villa Maria
Across from
Manor East Mall
three against Marie Ritchie, nurs
ing administrator; two against
Mary Wagner, registered nurse
and one each against nurses Phyl
lis Daulong and Ann Wright.
They are the same people
named in the March indictments.
The corporation was also
charged with theft of state Depart
ment of Human Resources funds,
specifically by depriving patients
of care paid for by those funds.
The indictments charge that pa
tient treatment charts, which
must be maintained for the gov
ernment, were falsified by officials
to reflect that patients received
meals, baths, medication to pre
vent bed sores and other care
when, in fact, they did not receive
such treatment at the 120-bed
nursing home.
Autumn Hills officials denied
they gave the eight patients sub
standard treatment and said a for
mer disgruntled employee
sparked the two-year investiga
tion as retribution against her for
mer employer.
If found guilty, the corporation
faces a maxium fine of $20,000 for
each charge. The court also could
demand that a notice be posted
insided the nursing home indicat
ing its conviction.
The patients who died were be
tween 62 and 87 years old.
779-9484
Battalion Classifieds
Call 845-2611
SuimmertiuMe...
Milt the living is easy
at
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RESTAURAirr AJVI) BAR
4 th of July
Celebration
th
Come celebrate
Saturday July 4 1
with 25# beer and
s 1.25 mixed drinks from
11 a. m. till midnite
Happy 11 out* — Mon.-Fri. 4-7
Vst price: drinks and appetizers
Large Parties Welcome — Please call in advance.
Bring this Ad For a 10% discount For your entire
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4501 S. Texas 846-0945
CORNERSTONE
FREE WILL BAPTIST CHURCH
Temporarily meeting in the Old College Station City Hall at
the corner of Wellborn and Church Street, one block from
the Northwest comer of the main campus.
WEEKLY SERVICES
Sunday School 9:45 A.M.
Sunday Worship 11:00 A.M.
Sunday Evening 7:00 P.M.
Wednesday Bible Study 7:00 P.M.
We are growing and serving. Come and Worship with us.
Pastor <- Rev. Wesley Bigelow
Phone 846-3811
DIETING?
Even though we do not prescribe diets,
we make it possible for many to enjoy a
nutritious meal while they follow their
doctors orders. You will be delighted
with the wide selection of low calorie,
sugar free and fat free foods in the
Souper Salad Area, Sbisa Dining Center
Basement.
OPEN
Monday through Friday 10:45 AM-1:45 PM
QUALITY FIRST
“YOU ASKED FOR IT!”
ed under
ion.
‘It’s lil
said a pol:
uncommoi
of tenemei
"What
irecrackei
_ A total i
I thorizedu
I ]ers, and i
| rackers. Ir
own laws
In addil
tate comr
ration ml
ives as M
f youngsl
In New
Uniti
WASH
tates re;
uspected
ot tobacc
tudy says
ancer de;
e substar
“Publ:
obacco fr
ause sme
This won't hurt
Lyle Long, a registered nurse with Wadley
Blood Bank, draws blood from Charles
Farnsworth during the Student Govern
ment-sponsored blood drive. Two bloodmo-
biles, at Rudder Tower and the Commons
dorms, are open from noon to 8 p.m.
Each bloodmobile can handle four donor:
every 15 minutes, ora total of 128personsi
day.
WASH
mers reo
ducts ski
irst half
Prices
TMC may get nuclear disposal
June •
Jdecline. ]
still were
year befc
United Press International
HOUSTON — Faced with increased costs and
problems in disposing of hazardous wastes, officials
at the Texas Medical Center are studying the possi
bility of building an incinerator to dispose of its
low-level nuclear waste products.
Dr. Jack K. Williams, executive vice president of
TMC Inc., said Tuesday medical institutions in the
353-acre facility would need two or three inciner
ators to burn all kinds of waste.
Many hospitals in the area already have small
incinerators which generally bum pathological
The
wastes but must contract for disposal of muchott: said Tu<
general, radioactive or other hazardous wastei, ceived lo
Officials estimated the cost of the incine**beans, <
might be less than $2 million. through
“This is a problem affecting every hospital, ^were pa.
liams said. “You cannot have modern meclicine<5fprices fa
out radioactivity.” Joes, bra
Earlier this year, TMC had stored 300 toll Lowe
barrels of radioactive wastes in storerooms andV|)nto rela
ments, which was near the legal limit. Those ^during t!
have been destroyed by Nuclear Sources and" which i;
vices Inc. overall ii
Mistake sets arsonist free ear
The i
United Press International
HUNTSVILLE — Bureaucratic red tape and a
clerical foul up has resulted in the accidental release
of an arsonist from the state prison.
Texas Department of Corrections officials said
Tuesday they were searching for L. D. Eddings, re
leased May 13 after after serving just a few months of
his six year sentence for arson.
Eddings was convicted in 1977 but remained free
food pric
ears. H
ogs and
food pric
on bond for four years pending appeals. higher r
According to prison officials, when Edding#the year-
admitted to the Ellis Unit, two sets of papers®# For tF
panied him, one of which did not mention tw tion in fa
had been free the four previous years. in the t]
The spokesman said that a clerk at the W are expe
mistakenly assumed that Eddings had beenintf^ rate of n
ated during that time and computed his prison' 1 supplies
so that he was released just months after adi# nomists
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