Rochester Home Health Aide Convicted Of Elder Abuse

Attorney General Spitzer today announced that Shanika Moore, a Rochester home health aide, has pleaded guilty to recklessly causing physical injury to an elderly Alzheimer’s patient in an adult home.

Moore, 21, pled guilty this morning in Monroe County Court to Endangering the Welfare of a Vulnerable Elderly Person in the Second Degree.

This is New York’s first prosecution brought under the provisions of "Kathy’s Law," which was enacted in 1998. The law provides enhanced penalties for crimes committed against the elderly and vulnerable by their care givers.

The statute is named for a Rochester-area nursing home patient, who was raped and impregnated, while in a chronic vegetative state, by a health aide.

"We have no tolerance for those abusing the elderly and infirm," said Spitzer. "Today’s conviction sends a clear message to those who abuse our most vulnerable: Prosecution will be swift, and encompass the full measure of the law."

In February 1999, Moore, while an employee of the Shire at Culverton Adult Home, recklessly shoved a 76 year-old resident to the floor fracturing his pelvis and ribs, and puncturing a lung.

Moore faces up to four years in prison. Sentencing before Judge Frank P. Geraci, Jr. is scheduled for July 14, 1999.

Special Assistant Attorney General Jerry M. Solomon handled the matter for the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit which is headed by Deputy Attorney General José Maldonado.