Sex Offenders in Nursing Homes - You Have To Be Kidding!

Dan Frith

Contributor

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I cannot believe it! We place our elderly and infirm family members in a nursing home so they will be watched over and taken care of in a safe and supportive environment. No one would ever think that those same family members are at risk for being sexually assaulted! Right? Unfortunately, I'm wrong!

Convicted sex offender Dennis Strong will spend at least his next eight months in far less hospitable surroundings, after living undetected for six months at a Springfield Township nursing home. Strong was sentenced to 111/2 to 23 months in prison Monday, plus an additional five years' probation for failing to register his whereabouts with law enforcement authorities under the New York state Megan's Law.

Strong, 47, from New York, arrived at the Valley Manor Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in December 2006 but didn't come to the attention of nursing home administrators until March. That's when he squeezed the breast of a female resident and threatened to ''crush'' a staff member who witnessed the incident. Administrators at the facility contacted Springfield Township police, who discovered Strong had been released from a New York state prison in 2002 after serving 18 months for sexually assaulting a 38-year-old woman with a doorknob in 1997.

Strong pleaded guilty to failure to comply with registration requirements and two harassment charges in the groping incident. The lesson here is that every employee and every resident must be investigated for criminal records.

For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Nursing Home and Elder Abuse..