Group home owner faces abuse charge
Health officials say investigation is ongoing
A former police officer who co-owns three group homes in Milwaukee for seniors with memory problems and developmental disabilities repeatedly stomped on the head of a 73-year-old man who fell out of bed, prosecutors say.
The elderly man suffered a small brain bleed and facial fractures, and doctors used four staples to close a wound on his head. He later told a detective he remembered his attacker claiming he would “get away with it because I am a police officer,” according to the criminal complaint.
David L. Howard Jr., 45, of Brown Deer, now faces a charge of aggravated battery with substantial risk involving a victim over 62 years old. Howard denied the accusations when questioned by police, the complaint says. His initial court date is scheduled for June 29. Milwaukee property records show Howard and his wife, Toni Howard, own A Place For Miracles, 5100 N. 42nd St., where the assault was reported May 11.
The two also own two other senior group homes in the city, each with a capacity of about a half-dozen residents. State Department of Health Services records list Toni Howard as the point of contact for all three.
The state Department of Health Services, which regulates senior care facilities, did not answer questions from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about how
the criminal case could affect the centers’ licenses or the general process that occurs once an assault allegation in a senior care center is reported.
“We are aware of the alleged incident and it is under investigation,” Jennifer Miller, an agency spokeswoman, said in an email. “We will be able to release information once the investigation is completed.”
A woman who answered the phone at A Place For Miracles and identified herself as an employee directed a reporter to contact Toni Howard, who declined to speak with a reporter when reached Wednesday but did provide the name of an attorney. That attorney did not return phone calls or an email seeking comment.
In 2018, state regulators found violations at the couple’s group home at 3927 W. Roosevelt Drive, including no documentation that employees had completed required continuing education. Records also show the home had a broken window, peeling paint, a large bag of used needles in a common area, debris in the laundry room and a broken outdoor ramp from a traffic crash outside. The violations were corrected that same year.
Wisconsin prosecutors rarely issue the charge of aggravated battery of an elderly person. Prosecutors statewide filed that charge an average of 35 times per year from 2009 to 2018, according to a Journal Sentinel review of online court data.
Physical abuse also makes up a small share of the total elder abuse reports to county agencies. The state Department of Health Services found 3% of the 8,792 reports made in 2018, the most recent year available, involved physical abuse.
Self-neglect, meaning reports of elderly people being unable to care for themselves, made up the largest share of calls, at about half.
Elderly man says he was stomped, kicked
In this case, David Howard is accused of throwing water on the man before stomping and kicking him at least eight times.
According to the criminal complaint:
The 73-year-old man had been living at A Place For Miracles for about a month when he fell out of bed in the early morning hours of May 11.
He grew frustrated when he did not receive help to get back up. He began to throw feces at a male staff member he knew as “Michael.”
The elderly resident told police the man then threw two buckets of water at him and proceeded to kick and stomp him.
He remembered the staff member saying: “I told you (expletive), I will kill you. I will beat the (expletive) out of you and get away with it because I am a police officer.”
A Milwaukee police detective interviewed the man at Froedtert Hospital, where he had been taken for his injuries. When the detective went to the group home, he spoke with David Howard, who said he got a text message about 2:30 a.m. from a female employee saying the resident was having behavioral problems.
He went to the facility where he found the man lying on the floor. The man began throwing feces at him and called him a “porch monkey,” David Howard told the detective.
He threw a bucket of water on the man to try to wash off the feces. He told police he stepped over the resident and “may have kicked him in the head” while doing that.
In a second interview with another detective, David Howard denied hitting, punching or kicking the man, saying the bucket he used “may have accidentally” hit the man in the nose as they struggled. He could not explain the resident’s injuries, speculating they could have occurred when the man fell and adding he could not “rule out” the other facility employee as a suspect.
Milwaukee police took the other employee into custody and interviewed her. The 27-year-old woman said she was working an overnight shift when the resident fell out of bed.
She described the man as combative and decided to call the owners, and David Howard arrived. She told police she saw him punch the elderly man “several times” in the face, causing him to bleed.
She said she took a photo at 6:28 a.m. showing the resident with no injuries, holding feces. David Howard arrived about 6:45 a.m., she said.
Based on the times listed in the complaint, David Howard took more than four hours to get to the facility, which suggests the man was on the floor that entire time. The complaint does not indicate what actions, if any, the female employee took to try to get the man back to bed. She was not charged in the incident.
In the complaint, prosecutors noted David Howard was an ex-Milwaukee police officer. He left the department in 2007 and is not eligible for a pension benefit, according to city records. If convicted of the charge, he faces a possible maximum sentence of three years in prison and three years on extended supervision, plus a possible maximum fine of $10,000.
Andrew Mollica of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.
Contact Ashley Luthern at ashley.luthern@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @aluthern.