2 at-risk deaths spur charges

Five staffers total are suspected in the incidents at a pair of long-term care sites.

The deaths of two at-risk adults — one with dementia, the other with disabling seizures — have resulted in criminal charges against five employees at long-term care centers, the attorney general’s office announced Friday.

Two former workers at Wheat Ridge Regional Center have been arrested in the death of a man with a seizure disorder who drowned in a bathtub.

In a separate case, three former workers at a home that specialized in “memory care” for people with dementia were charged in the death of an elderly woman, Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman said in announcing the results of a long-term investigation.

Victoria Pletting, 60, and Joanita Serwadda, 52, were arrested in the death of Buddhi Rai, who had frequent seizures and a gastronomy tube for medication and nutrition.

Rai, a resident of a Wheat Ridge Regional Center community group home called Secrest House, died in November 2014 of drowning while taking a bath unattended.

Under the requirements of the center, staffers were supposed to keep Rai in their line of sight at all times while he was awake and every 15 minutes during sleep. An investigation found that both women were aware Rai was alone in the bathroom with the door closed.

When staff checked on him 10 minutes later, Rai was on his side with his nose and mouth underwater, the attorney general’s office said. His drowning probably followed a seizure, investigators found.

Pletting was charged with manslaughter, and both women were charged with criminally negligent homicide of an at-risk adult.

In the second case, arrest warrants were issued for three people in the death of 94-year-old Mary Gatewood, who had advanced dementia.

Gatewood, a resident of Ashley Manor Assisted Living Facility, fell in the home’s backyard in June 2016 and landed in a landscaped rock bed. She was not found for an hour and a half, despite a facility policy to conduct headcounts every 15 minutes.

Temperatures that day were above 86 degrees, and an autopsy cited heat stress as the primary cause of death.

Video surveillance showed staff had not checked on Gateway for at least three hours, the attorney general’s office said.

The three women charged in the case — Deidre Lopez, 32, Roxanne Ousley, 36, and Jasmine Salgado, 22 — were responsible for conducting headcounts while

Gatewood was outside. They were charged with criminally negligent homicide of an at-risk adult.

Lopez has been arrested, while the other women are being sought by law enforcement.

These cases were the result of an investigation by the state’s Medicaid fraud control unit.

“What happened to these two victims is heartbreaking and the tragedy of their loss is made worse by the fact that their deaths were preventable,” Coffman said in a release.