Officials Have Tried To Close Assisted Living Home Before

By ANNIE DeGENOVA
MOUNDSVILLE — For two years, officials with the West Virginia Office of Health Facility Licensure and Certification have been trying to close an assisted living home in Moundsville where a resident claims she was sexually assaulted.

They say that’s because it has a long history of “deficient practices,” including unsanitary living conditions and exploitation of residents.

“We’ve been trying to shut that place down for two years now,” said Gloria Pauley of the licensure and certification office. “We have filed a petition in Marshall County Circuit Court to close the place, but it is still pending.”

On Wednesday, Roy Reed Sheldon, 22, was arrested and charged with sexually assaulting a 57-year-old female resident at the Dora Allietta Home. Police said the woman has the mental capacity of a young child, could not care for herself and could not consent to sex.

According to investigators with the Office of Health Facility Licensure and Certification of the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, the home has not been licensed by the state since July 2005 after the office filed citations against the home for “numerous uncorrected deficiencies.”

Annual surveys of home by the OHFLC show it has been in violation of the state’s requirements for assisted living facilities since that time. The surveyors of the home reported that, even up to their last survey in August, residents were not being cared for properly. They said the home had an inadequate food supply, was “extremely unsanitary,” that residents were being verbally abused, medication was not being administered according to doctors’ orders, medication was not locked up, utility bills were paid with bad checks, personal hygiene products were not available and that residents were using soiled bed linens, bedding and clothing.

The surveyors also believe the residents were being exploited.

At the time of the alleged sexual assault, Roy Sheldon was living at the home with his wife, who worked in management there. That was not news to OHFLC officials, however, who reported numerous times in the past that part of the home was being occupied by the couple and their 8-month-old daughter.

In reports filed in Marshall County Circuit Court, the surveyors stated that when the sexual assault was reported to an employee at the home, it was not immediately addressed. It wasn’t until an adult probation services worker made a routine check at the home that the allegations were first taken seriously.

OHFLC officials also claim that just days before that assault was reported to police, a resident was given an overdose of medication.

On Thursday, the home was closed after family members heard of the allegations and removed some of the residents. That same day, officials with the OHFLC entered a motion in circuit court to expedite the a decision on their petition to have the home closed permanently. That motion is being reviewed.

The home’s owner, Debbie Broski, could not be reached for comment.