2 jailed in prank on elderly resident
A Franklin County judge has imposed jail sentences for two women who were charged with patient abuse after one videotaped the other spraying hairspray into the face of an elderly assisted-living resident in Canal Winchester.
Roberta I. Bower, 29, of the Far East Side, and Makiah Halsell, 23, of Reynoldsburg, were indicted for patient abuse, a fourth-degree felony. They pleaded guilty to possessing criminal tools, a lesser felony, as part of a plea agreement.
The two women were ordered by Common Pleas Judge Chris Brown to spend three days in the Franklin County jail. Brown also placed both on probation for three years and ordered them to complete cognitive behavioral programming and perform 20 hours of community service at an Oct. 13 sentencing hearing.
As a result of the convictions, both women have been placed on an abuse registry by the Ohio Department of Health, which bans them for life from working in any health care-related job in the state.
Assistant Prosecutor Michael Hughes told the court that the incident occurred on June 3, 2019, at The Inn at
Winchester Trail, where the women worked at the time.
Bower sprayed hairspray for a few seconds at the face of a 94-year-old woman as she sat in a wheelchair, and Halsell recorded the incident and posted it on Snapchat, Hughes said. Hughes played the video, on which both women can be heard laughing, in court during the sentencing hearing.
After the video was reported to authorities, the two aides were suspended and eventually fired by the care facility, the prosecutor’s office said. jfutty@dispatch.com @johnfutty