Woman arrested on elderly neglect charge

A 67-year-old dementia patient relied on caregivers at an assisted-living facility, where three former staffers are accused of binding her mouth and limbs with duct-tape and not protecting her, Boynton Beach police said Wednesday.

Two of the ex-employees were arrested last month. On Friday, Broward sheriff ’s deputies met Sherlie Tesyeux at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport as she arrived from Haiti.

Tesyeux, 27, of Delray Beach, was arrested on a charge of elderly neglect, Boynton Beach police said.

Her two former colleagues, Phygelle Brudent, 44, and Lashron Williams 52, were arrested July 12. They are facing charges of elder abuse and false imprisonment after the July 3 incident at the Regal Park Assisted Living, at 1708 NE Fourth St., police said.

Authorities did not identify the patient.

Brudent, of West Palm Beach, admitted to investigators that she took the patient to another resident’s room, tied her waist to a chair with cloth pajama pants and taped her hands and feet against the chair, an arrest report said.

She told police she taped the patient’s mouth to prevent her

from screaming because she was unable to remain quiet.

Brudent said she was frustrated that the woman could not keep still and she had other patients to care for, according to police reports. She is being held in a Palm Beach County jail on a $50,000 bond.

Williams, also from West Palm Beach, told police she saw the woman with duct tape around her mouth, and removed it to give her sleeping pills. She also removed a small portion of the tape that bound the woman’s body, reports said.

Williams told investigators that she talked with Brudent about tying the patient to a chair and that it was wrong, but didn’t report the incident. She was in jail on a $15,000 bond and ordered to not work as a certified nursing assistant. She has pleaded not guilty, according to court records.

Both ex-employees were accused of inflicting physical and psychological injury on the woman, who was “not alert to time, place and the year,” police said.

A “confidential caller” told a detective that Tesyeux was in the room with the bound patient and her two former colleagues. Tesyeux did nothing about it and didn’t report it to other facility staff, an arrest report said. Tesyeux is also accused of failing to make any reasonable effort to protect the patient.

An officer saw evidence of the illegal restraining of the patient, but that information was not described in reports. At one point a chair was tilted back against a bed, making it “very unsafe” for the patient, police said.

Regal Park Assisted Living is a 90-bed, for-profit facility co-owned by Ricki Kaneti, who is also director of operations.

In an email Wednesday, Kaneti said in part, “The important fact here is that everyone at the facility is flourishing and that all the residents are safely enjoying their quality of life. The family and loved ones have all recuperated from the incident, and are pleased with the steps and operations here at the Boynton Beach community.”

Two state agencies, the Florida Department of Children and Families and the Florida Agency for Healthcare Administration, said Wednesday their respective investigations into the situation are continuing.

Tesyeux has since been freed on bond.