Long Island Nursing Home Aides Accused Of Spying On Residents
PORT JEFFERSON STATION, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- Two nursing home aides are accused of taking disturbing photos and videos of residents at multiple nursing homes on Long Island.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said the two certified nursing home aides, David Rover and Thomas Mocera, took photos of patients that showed large bed sores, patients' private areas that were covered in feces, and of a patient with an overflowing colostomy bag, all without consent.
Authorities said most of the incidents happened at Woodhaven Nursing Home in Port Jefferson Station.
L.I. Nursing Home Aides Accused Of Spying On Residents
Rosemary Cartafalsa, who has a 70-year-old sister in a Port Jefferson Station nursing home, said she got a phone call from a law enforcement official this week.
"I was really outraged. I couldn't believe what she was telling me," Cartafalsa told 1010 WINS' Mona Rivera. "She's wheelchair-bound and mentally deficient."
"I think they're really perverts. I think that's a terrible thing to do to someone," Cartafalsa told CBS 2's Carolyn Gusoff.
WCBS 880 reporter Sophia Hall was told another incident occurred at the Long Island State Veterans Home in Stony Brook.
L.I. Nursing Home Aides Accused Of Spying On Residents
"I speak on behalf of all 800 employees who are completely outraged over the actions of these two individuals," director Fred Sganga told Hall.
The AG's office also said an incident happened at Jefferson's Ferry Retirement Community in South Setauket, but a spokesperson said investigators found no evidence of disturbing images.
"Where's the screening? I don't understand how they kind of slipped through," a victim's niece, Victoria Stietzle, told Gusoff.
One victim was at Long Island State Veterans Home and another was at Jefferson's Ferry, where officials said the photo was not offensive and only Rover was employed, Gusoff reported.
"He had a clean record at that time. He was a very young man. He may have even been in high school at the time, so I don't know what happens to people," Karen Brannen, the CEO of Jefferson's Ferry, told Gusoff.
Neither defendant responded to requests for comment, but their lawyer said they look forward to their day in court.
The two men accused have both pleaded not guilty.
The men are accused of photographing at least 11 patients at three Suffolk County nursing homes, Rivera reported.
"How could you be in that profession and do something like that? I just can't see it," Cartafalsa told Rivera.
The Woodhaven Nursing Home declined to comment.
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