Press
Personal care home remains open despite lawsuit
Web story produced by Lisa Durham :: WHAS News
It took a lawsuit and a jury trial for JoCleta Wilson to realize the extent to which her daughter, Toni, had been sexually molested at Pleasant Place. "She's just mentally a child. It was heartbreaking, really," Wilson said.
Staff members testified they saw patients molest the mentally retarded woman at the Pleasant Place Home for Care on Dixie Highway.
Staff at Pleasant Place say they saw patients molest Toni Wilson when she lived there.
Attorney Will Driscoll, who represented the family, got a jury Monday to award $250,000 to the Wilsons for Toni's treatment at Pleasant Place.
"For years, the proof at trial was that the sexual abuse had been going on at least two or three times a week for years," Driscoll said.
Testimony from former workers at the personal care home showed, in the mid 1990s, they had complained to owner Ken Jones about the attacks on the mentally retarded woman, but that he did nothing.
A nursing supervisor testified in a deposition that Jones threatened staff not to report the abuse to Adult Protective Services.
"I think the verdict shows that long term care facilities will be held accountable if they allow neglect and abuse to occur," Driscoll said.
Walter Ray Wise was one of several male patients who molested the woman. He's a convicted child molester, whose stay in Pleasant Place in part caused the state to order it closed in 1998.
The facility is still open with patients. Toni is gone from the facility, and the better for it, her mother says. "She's a very loving person and she's just very, very happy," Wilson said.
Pleasant Place owner Ken Jones and his attorney did not respond to phone calls from WHAS11 News. |
