Home staffer charged in resident’s death
Police have issued a warrant for a boardinghome employee charged in the 2020 death of a resident who developed a fatal infection at a southeast Houston property after having his hands tied as punishment, according to court records.
The warrant, filed Monday, identifies John Grant as an employee and resident of the onetime Blessed Hands boarding home in the 5800 block of Schevers Street — an unlicensed facility whose operator, prosecutors said, was behind the Harris County home where authorities in September found dozens of people in deplorable conditions without food or medical care.
Grant, 56, is charged with injury to an elderly individual. As of Thursday, Grant has not been arrested. Prior court records listed him as homeless.
The death — which medical examiner records have classified as a homicide — happened May 3 following injuries at the home, where Grant lived and worked, documents show. A former resident of the boardinghome told Houston Police Department homicide investigators that he had earlier seen Grant use a “bunjee (sic) type cord to tie and restrain” a man, identified in court records as Clifton Barber, to a chair as pun
ishment. He also punched the man, the witness said.
A week later, Barber, 65, died of sepsis “due to left wrist cutaneous abscess (es) associated with restraint,” records show.
The witness said Grant did this to Barber on two other occasions. He would untie him so that he could “rest at night,” investigators wrote in probable cause documents.
Grant’s employment history with the Blessed Hands home and other facilities was not known. His criminal history in Harris County dates back to 1983, starting with a conviction for aggravated sexual assault of a child, records show. He was sentenced most recently in 2019 to nine months for felony possession of cocaine.
‘Unspeakable’ acts
Another Blessed Hands employee — whom authorities described as an unlicensed caregiver — told police that Barber had been unwell for at least three days. He first noticed “a bump, which appeared like a tiny bite mark,” on Barber’s arm and cleaned the wound.
On the day of Barber’s death, his condition had not improved and the employee decided he would take him to Ben Taub Hospital.
A man the employee knew as “John” helped Barber into the car, investigators wrote. The employee made it as far as the 12900 block of Cullen Boulevard — about 4 miles south of the Schevers home — before calling 911 because Barber had gone into cardiac arrest, court records continued. He died at the hospital.
The employee, when reached by phone, said he no longer works with the boarding home and declined to comment further. Police said in court documents that the employee refused to cooperate after their initial interview in May.
A boarding operation no longer operates at Schevers, residents there said Thursday. A neighbor, who declined to be identified, recalled seeing at least 10 residents at the home at one time and that he often saw nurses. On one occasion, the neighbor saw a man trying to leave in a wheelchair and an employee dragging him back.
“What happened with our complainant is unspeakable,” Kristina Roberts, head of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office Elder Abuse and Exploitation Section, said. “These cases are being reported more, and there’s been more and more attention to what’s going on in these homes.”
District Attorney Kim Ogg urged relatives of those with elderly or disabled loved ones in nursing homes or boarding facilities to check on them regularly.
“We’ve seen a dramatic increase in the amount of abuse in this vulnerable population,” Ogg said. “It’s been made worse by the pandemic because it has limited visitation.”
Long Meadow home
Investigators also tied Grant to the disturbing discovery at the 14000 block of Long Meadow Drive in Harris County last September, when police found 37 residents — most of whom were diagnosed with mental or physical disabilities — forced to live together in an estimated 2,700-squarefoot home. Some of the residents were confined to the garage without air conditioning.
One resident, a 64-yearold man, died of natural causes at the home, also known as the Caring Hands Group Home.
Investigators from Harris County Precinct 7 Constable’s Office said Grant was among the employees detained and released from the boarding home.
The operator of that residence, Carroll Shelton Richardson, who also ran the Schevers home, remains under investigation, according to prosecutors. He has not been charged in connection to either of the boarding homes, and his attorney could not be reached for comment.
The witness from the Schevers home told authorities that he was later relocated to the Long Meadow residence and that he was among those rescued, according to court records.
In the city, Richardson has been on the radar of HPD’s Boarding Home Enforcement Unit for at least three years for seven other properties, for which he had been cited more than 200 times, according to police. The citations ranged from failure to provide access to medical records to lacking a certificate of occupancy.
But that enforcement stopped at the city limits because, until recently, the county lacked similar boarding home regulations.
Harris County Commissioners Court on Tuesday passed new regulations on boarding homes in unincorporated areas that allows for site inspections, health enforcement, standard of care and occupancy levels.
“I think it will dramatically make a difference in the quality of life for the elderly in those settings,” said Jay Aiyer, of the Harris County Attorney’s Office. The regulations and permitting process goes into effect March 1, he continued.
State Sen. Borris Miles (D-Houston) also plans to introduce bills aimed at making unlicensed boarding facilities a criminal offense in some communities.