Florida: 18 residents of boarding home found in windowless rooms, no air conditioning

[madfloridian]

and one elderly woman was lying on the floor.

Another "licensed" home by the state of Florida, with apparently little oversight.

18 in Boarding Home Found to Be Sweltering

TAMPA | Eighteen residents of a state-licensed boarding home have been removed after authorities found them in an overcrowded residence without air conditioning as temperatures soared outside.

Authorities said the residents had been without air conditioning for up to two days in windowless rooms furnished with bunk beds while the heat index outside reached 104 degrees. One 86-year-old woman, found unresponsive on the floor, was taken to a hospital.

The Department of Children & Families took 16 of the residents to Bay Gardens Retirement Village near the University of South Florida, said Nancy Ortiz, a nurse who helped care for them when they arrived Thursday evening.

A sister picked up one resident, and the 86-year-old remained at the hospital, where she was responsive. Investigators arrested Daphne Jones, 36, charging her with 18 counts of neglect of the elderly or disabled, jail records showed. Jones posted $135,000 bail Friday and was released from jail.

There is so much lack of state oversight here in the DCF. Since our Democratic head of the DCF under Crist approves of all the privatizing....I don't see much hope for change.

In one county sheriff's deputies visited a group home 44 times, and never saw a woman covered with maggots. Something is wrong with that.

Not ruled "willful neglect" even though visited 44 times by deputies

LOXAHATCHEE - State and local authorities visited an unlicensed South Florida adult group home numerous times before discovering a 66-year-old woman covered in filth and maggots in May, a newspaper reported Sunday.

....""We couldn't show there was willful neglect," Assistant State Attorney Michael Rachel said.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff's deputies responded to the home 44 times for a variety of calls in the six months before it was closed on May 24, but did not note unsatisfactory conditions, The Palm Beach Post reported Sunday.

Something is wrong with my state. I think Jeb had too much success in emptying the government buildings. He said he "envisioned a time when "we can make these buildings around us empty of workers; silent monuments to the time when government played a larger role than it deserved or could adequately fill."

He may have succeeded too well.

[acmavm]

1. Too bad Babs and Poopy won't end up in a place like this.

[SoCalDem]

2. Board & Careless homes are a growing cottage industry

Keeping the overseeing staff levels to a minimum guarantees fraud & abuse..

[Lars39]

3. That's not neglect, it's attempted murder.

No telling what else those poor people have suffered through. :cry:

[rodeodance]

4. gee, maybe Congress will call a special session to deal with this?

Don't mean to be cynical----but it is FL and I thought of Frist and Terry S. case (and bush flying back from crawford to sign the bill).

[madfloridian]

5. I understand your cynicism......I doubt Congress will do anything.

I doubt the state will do anything. It just keeps happening over and over.

[madfloridian]

6. Tragic photograph...18 living in space spent for 6 people.

This is happening over and over and over in Florida...it just keeps on. I thought Butterworth might make a difference, being a Democrat and all, but he does not seem to be doing much about it yet.



A resident waits for help in the boarding house Thursday.


http://www.sptimes.com/2007/08/11/Hillsborough/Boarding_house_operat.shtml

"TAMPA -- Sandra Hall's family members thought they had found the perfect home for the retired nursing home worker.

Daphne Jones showed them around a 6,165-square-foot gated mansion, a riverfront oasis on Puritan Road, filled with signs of wealth, such as fine fur coats, like something in a museum, said Hall's niece, Lisa B. Johnson, 46, of Tampa.

The family members were sold, and for the past year they thought Hall was living in such luxury. But that's not where she wound up. Investigators found her and 17 other elderly and disabled people in a cramped West Tampa building.

A tip led police there Thursday afternoon. They said the residents had been without air conditioning for up to two days in windowless rooms furnished with bunk beds while the heat index outside reached 104-degrees. One 86-year-old woman, found unresponsive on the floor, was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital.

"I know she had us to believe that Aunt Sandra was living in that big house, the one they showed on TV," Johnson said. "We thought that she was living there because that's where we went to visit her."

[Mojorabbit]

7. My outside thermometer

hit 103 in orlando without heat index yesterday and today. How awful! Those poor people. It never ceases to amaze me the depths of total disregard for life and dignity some people have.

[madfloridian]

8. Did you see the picture I posted? Sickening.

:cry:

[madfloridian]

9. That woman had other scams going. So sad.

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/08/14/Hillsborough/Room__board_for_benef.shtml

"Jones was also briefly Frank Lopez's payee when the 71-year-old man lived in her adult family care home in late 2005, his brother John, 74, said.

Doctors once diagnosed Frank Lopez with schizophrenia, and he had the mental abilities of a child, his brother said. A health care professional recommended that his family check him into Jones' home because Lopez's siblings were growing too old or sick to care for him.

"It was described as a beautiful place on the Hillsborough River," John Lopez said, "and there were only four or five people there."

While in Jones' care, John Lopez said, his brother was once forced to share a bed with a man who punched him in the stomach during a fight over sleeping space. Frank Lopez suffered from a double hernia, his brother said. He was also given medication he was allergic to, John Lopez said. He said his brother got too much medication, causing him to lose his balance.

Frank Lopez fell twice, requiring ambulance trips to the hospital. No one accompanied him, John Lopez said.

"Please don't take me back to that place," John Lopez recalled his brother saying."

[Selatius]

10. Why won't Floridians take a stand and take back their own state government from the corporatists?

Are they murdering good candidates there?

[madfloridian]

11. Mostly because so many don't know what has been done here.

I don't think many of us actually realize how far the privatization has gone in state government.

I just did another news search on this, and found nothing new in several days.

Wondering how many other times it goes on that we don't know about.

[kcass1954]

13. The local media's generally not any better than the national media.

I live an hour from Loxahatchee - we own property there - and I've never heard about that situation.

I'm amazed - and not in a good way. I had high hopes that Butterworth would start to turn DCF around.

[madfloridian]

14. Butterworth...good man...but thinks too centrist.

He strongly believes in the privatization of most things. This is pathetic, though...how did she ever get licensed.

You are right..the media here is not much better than national.

[madfloridian]

12. Much more on this woman, the owner. How in the world did she get licensed?

This is a very long article about her. How did she get to be a landlord? How did her place get licensed by the state of Florida?

This is pretty bad stuff here. Her ex husband is Kiki Jones, former Devil Rays pitcher. This is a very long article.

http://www.tbo.com/news/nationworld/MGBTM7YJH5F.html

"Numerous Defaults Recorded
Public records outline other issues. In 2001, shortly before she and Kiki Jones filed for divorce, both of them defaulted on a $49,500 mortgage on a property at 1119 Arch St. and a $140,200 mortgage for an apartment building at 905 E. Sligh Ave. Both properties later were sold in foreclosure.

Over the next few years, Daphne Jones was sued for $5,000 for failing to pay to have windows installed and for about $9,000 for unpaid roofing work. Home Depot, Bay Gulf Credit Union and Suncoast Schools Federal Credit Union each sued her for unpaid credit-card payments. Huntington National Bank said she defaulted on a credit line worth about $50,000 for her hair salon. She defaulted on payments for a $51,000 Cadillac Escalade and a $243,000 mortgage for the Beach Street building, court records show.

Process servers had trouble locating Jones to deliver her subpoenas. One noted in court papers that "current resident Michelle Kane" at the Puritan Road address said Jones had moved. Another filed an affidavit that Jones was avoiding service.

Jones filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection four times, in 2002, 2003 and twice in 2004. Each time, the cases were dismissed without granting Jones' suggested payment plan. In 2002, the plan did not list all her assets, a federal trustee assigned to the case noted in court papers. In 2003, she was delinquent in paying the trustee. In June 2004, she failed to file adequate paperwork listing her creditors and financial affairs, and in November 2004, she missed a required meeting with her creditors, court records show.

County court records say the company that financed the window installation recovered costs after Jones' 2002 bankruptcy filing. Huntington National Bank dismissed its case against her after that filing. The county courts dismissed the cases brought by Suncoast, Home Depot and Cadillac after there were no signs of prosecution in the files after a year."