Sacramento, CA — California’s attorney general charged two nurses with felony elder abuse in the death of Johnnie Esco in 2008.  Johnnie Esco, 77, died after staying for two weeks at the El Dorado Care Center in Placerville.  El Dorado Care Center is a skilled nursing facilty that was part of Horizon West Healthcare Inc. of Rocklin before it sold its 27 nursing homes to Plum Healthcare Group last year.  A lawsuit was filed by Esco’s family in 2009 accusing El Dorado Care Center of altering and improperly …

SANTA ANA, Calif.  — A caregiver employed at Villa Valencia in Laguna Hills was in court Tuesday on trial for stealing from three elderly patients.  Jaime Corpus, 44, is a nursing student and is charged with burglary, identity theft, and elder financial abuse.
Authorities say they have surveillance video of Corpus using a patient’s credit card at a store in Santa Ana. He’s also seen at an ATM withdrawing money. He became a suspect after discrepancies were found on the elderly patients’ credit card bills.
Corpus was terminated after his arrest.  …

A Polk County jury has ordered the owners of a Grinnell nursing home to pay almost half a million dollars to the estate of a man who died after an accident at the facility.
The case is unusual because lawsuits against nursing homes are rare.  Mostly because the elderly victims of abuse or neglect have little life expectancy and no earnings potential.  That dramatically reduces any potential jury award, even in cases of obvious neglect.
The accident involved 89-year-old Wilbur Jackson and occurred in June 2009 at Grinnell’s Friendship Manor Care Center. …