Trust your Instincts, Not Their Lies

CBS News reported the horrific sexual assault of a vulnerable adult at a nursing home. Christine Mulcahy’s sister, K.P., had a stroke and needed skilled nursing care. Police arrested a nursing home aide with sexually assaulting a woman under his care at Regent of Burnsville nursing home.

“To put her into a facility where you have to trust others to hopefully give the quality of care that you would as a family member. Unfortunately, in this case, that trust was broken.”

Mulcahy says it wasn’t until recently that she suspected something was off with K.P.’s care.

“There was an instance where… broken ribs sent her to the hospital, and what my sister told me versus what I was hearing from the faculty were two different things,” Mulcahy said. “My sister does suffer from dementia, so I can’t always 100% know what she’s telling me is really what happened.”

Mulcahy put a camera in her sister’s room. She notified the facility’s administrator and had the camera installed during a holiday visit.

“The camera was placed on Christmas Day, and within 48 hours, I watched the video in the evening and was horrified by what I saw. “I never expected to see what I saw. I was looking for things missing in care, and witnessed the sexual assault.”

The video captured John Akonkoh assaulting K.P. Police arrested him later that day while.

Akonkoh is charged with two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, for which he could face a maximum of 30 years in prison if he’s convicted.

“I have looked at other facilities, but she is a high-care need, and other facilities aren’t anxious to take people with high cares,” she said. “But I watch that camera every day. Every day. I would encourage anyone who has someone in a facility like this to have a camera. Otherwise you don’t really know what’s going on.”