FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Four employees of a Florida nursing home where 12 people died in sweltering heat after a hurricane cut power were charged Monday, at least three of them with aggravated manslaughter, their attorneys said.
Nursing home patients at the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills, ranging in age from 57 to 99, began dying three days after Hurricane Irma swept through in September 2017.
The center, which housed about 150 patients at the time, did not evacuate any of the residents as the temperature began rising, even though a fully functional hospital was across the street, investigators said. The home’s license was suspended days after the storm and it was later closed.
Former Rehabilitation Center nurse Sergo Colin and administrator Jorge Carballo were each charged with 12 counts of aggravated manslaughter, according to jail records. Nurse Althia Meggie was charged with two counts of aggravated manslaughter and two counts of tampering with evidence.
All three turned themselves in at the Broward County Jail on Monday and were scheduled to appear in court today, their attorneys said.
Nurse Tamika Miller was being held in the Miami-Dade County jail on unspecified charges, according to the jail’s website. She was awaiting transfer to Broward County.
Hollywood Police spokeswoman Miranda Grossman said authorities would withhold comment until a news conference set for today.
Attorney Jim Cobb said none of the employees understood why they were being charged. He said Carballo and other administrators were repeatedly told before the storm that they could call then-Gov. Rick Scott’s personal cellphone directly for help. Cobb said they called five times, but never heard back from Scott.
Cobb said the administrators “sat there languishing waiting for the cavalry to come. … They never, ever came.”
Attorney Lawrence Hashish remarked that “the real crime is that the state is looking to blame selfless caregivers and the evidence will show that no crime was committed.”
Scott, now a U.S. senator, said in a statement that the nursing home should have called 911.
“Nothing can hide the fact that this health care facility failed to do their basic duty to protect life,” he said.
But attorney David Frankel insisted that the staff did everything they could to keep the patients, some of them in hospice, cool and hydrated. They brought in small air conditioners and fans, he said.
He also criticized the notion from investigators and some family members of the deceased that staff should have taken the patients across the street to the air-conditioned Memorial Regional Hospital. He said the hospital had been sending patients to the nursing home.
