Nurse's Aide Arrested For Abusing Elderly Patient At Ulster County Nursing Home

Attorney General Spitzer today announced the arrest of a certified nurse's aide for physically abusing a 78-year-old man at a Lake Katrine nursing home last summer.

"This kind of violent crime against our elderly and most vulnerable residents will not be tolerated,"" said Spitzer. "We are committed to vigorously prosecuting those who abuse the very citizens whose care and well-being is entrusted to them."

Charles Risley, 50, of 16 Birchwood Drive in South Saugerties, was arraigned yesterday in Ulster County Town Court before Judge Robert O'Sullivan. He was charged with Wilful Violation of Health Laws and Endangering the Welfare of a Physically Disabled Person. If convicted, he faces up to one year in prison.

Risley, while employed as a nurse's aide at the Northeast Center for Special Care on July 20, 2000, physically abused the patient by picking him up and roughly throwing him onto the bed, causing the patient's left arm to become pinned under his body and his tracheotomy tube to become dislodged.

Spitzer thanked the State Health Department for referring the matter to his office.

Northeast Center for Special Care is located at 300 Grant Avenue in Lake Katrine. Risley had worked at the facility since it opened in March 1999. He was terminated the day of the incident.

Special Assistant Attorney General Gilbert Epstein, of the Pearl River Regional Office of the Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, is prosecuting the case. All cases are handled under the direct supervision of Deputy Attorney General Jos? Maldonado.

The charges against Risley are accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.