Sun, Jul 05, 2009

Tucson Region

Care home probed after reported sexual assault

By Stephanie Innes
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 07.06.2008
The state is investigating a Tucson assisted-living home where a co-owner is accused of sexually assaulting a female resident.
Sidney Ronald Thomas, 48, co-owner of the nine-bed Baker House, 917 N. Catalina Ave., is charged with two counts of sexual assault and one count of kidnapping.
Thomas was indicted June 20 by a Pima County grand jury and booked into the county jail on the felony charges, but was later released on a $50,000 bond. His next court date is Aug. 15.
Court documents say assaults occurred between May 20 and June 9.
Police searched the home June 9 and obtained a DNA sample from Thomas, and bedding and nightclothes from the alleged victim, among other things, court records show.
The Tucson Police Department last week would not release the police report of Thomas' arrest, saying it needed more time to review it.
Thomas and his attorney did not return phone calls seeking comment, and the Midtown assisted-living home was empty last week.
State officials confirmed last week they are investigating Thomas and Baker House.
"At this point the license has not been surrendered, nor has the (state health) department taken action to have the license surrendered," said Bob Ohlfest, team leader for assisted-living licensing in Tucson. "The current situation is still under investigation."
Baker House already had troubles.
State records show recent disciplinary action against Baker House for, among other things, failing to ensure residents were left in the care of a qualified caregiver. The home was fined $1,400 in April and $2,000 in November.
A state investigator wrote that Baker House administrators failed to ensure that one of its caregivers had met all training requirements before starting work, and also failed to ensure separate medication records for each resident.
In January, the state issued a one-year provisional license to Baker House for failing to "substantially comply with the statutes and rules that govern assisted-living facilities."
"We'll be able to answer more when we are finished with the investigation," said Alan Oppenheim, deputy assistant director for the Arizona Department of Health Services' division of licensing.
State officials said allegations of sexual assault are rare at state-licensed facilities. They pointed to numerous state requirements, including a criminal background check, that are necessary to obtain a license to run an assisted-living home in Arizona.
"It's not common at all. We're taking this very seriously," Oppenheim said.
Tucsonan Anna Katie Taffs said her son, Charles Jordan, 43, who has schizophrenia, was living in Baker House at the time of Thomas' arrest, and that all the residents were immediately removed from the home.
She said someone, possibly Tucson police, woke her son up during the evening of the arrest and took him to a shelter.
Taffs learned of the arrest when she called the facility looking for her son, she said. She said a worker told her that Thomas had been arrested.
Taffs said her son had been at Baker House for about 10 days. She was devastated by the news. She said the home was neat and clean and in a good location, and that it was a place where she felt her son would be safe.
Charles Jordan is now at Tucson Medical Center, she said, and his parents are scrambling to find another place where he can live.
● Contact reporter Stephanie Innes at 573-4134 or sinnes@azstarnet.com.