Louisiana Nursing Home Abuse Allegations: Family Seeks Accountability For Elderly Mother

A startling story and investigation continues in Lafayette after a family says they were contacted by a detective with the Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Office showing them a video of their mother being abused by two nursing assistants according to a story at KLFY.

How did all of this come to pass? In breaking down the sequence of events, in November of 2023, Patricia Verdugo and her sister were contacted by a detective to view a video. The video of an elderly woman being harmed at the nursing facility lives in turned out to be their mother.

Another shock was that the video was found on the boyfriend's phone of one of the two nursing assistants arrested. It was viewed as part of a non-related murder investigation, but bringing to light these other crimes.

Officials with the Lafayette Sheriff's Office say 34-year-old Christal Howard was charged with the following:

Simple Assault

Cruelty to the Infirmed

Simple Battery of the Infirm

Hate Crimes

The second suspect in this case is being sought by sheriff's officials. They are looking for 33-year-old Dontrielle Harris on the following charges:

Cruelty to the Infirmed

Two Counts of Non-Consensual Disclosure of a Private Image

The family of the victim involved in the nursing home abuse has filed suit against both women and the nursing home.

Verdugo says she and her sister were mortified by what they saw on those videos, and it was crushing to view what had been done to their mother who is suffering from dementia.

Verdugo says their family thought they had done their homework to pick a good place for their mother, and they were completely shocked by what happened. The elderly woman's room is now equipped with cameras so that they can monitor their mom.