Inset left to right: Angela Peterson and Sherika Myles (Dorchester County Sheriff's Office). Background: The Coastal Regional Center in Summerville, S.C. (Google Maps).
Two workers at a South Carolina support facility left a vulnerable adult strapped to a toilet for an hour with a leaking feeding tube without helping them, Palmetto State law enforcement say.
Angela Peterson, 46, and Sherika Myles, 41, are charged with neglect of a vulnerable adult, according to the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division (SLED). The pair were booked into the Dorchester County Detention Center but have since been released.
On May 20, Peterson was working as a registered nurse and Myles was working as a direct support professional at the Coastal Regional Center in Summerville, South Carolina. The area is located in the southeast of the state, about 25 miles from Charleston.
The Coastal Regional Center is operated by the Office of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, and the two defendants were reportedly tasked with caring for a vulnerable adult.
Someone had strapped the victim to a toilet with a G-tube, otherwise known as a gastrostomy tube, which is designed to give "direct access" for "supplemental feeding, hydration or medicine." However, this tube was leaking, according to authorities, a fact that Peterson allegedly knew.
She allegedly "wrapped a towel around the G-tube to stop it from leaking," but then "waited until the next shift nurse arrived, an hour later, to receive help fixing the G-tube," according to warrants reviewed by Law&Crime. The victim "had been left strapped to a toilet, with a leaking g-tube for an hour," the documents say.
Myles was tasked with caring for the victim and checking on them "every five minutes," which court documents say she "failed to do adequately." The victim had fallen while strapped to the toilet, and they were found "in a squatted position on the floor in front of the toilet, still strapped in," authorities allege.
Officers with SLED investigated the incident, saying they conducted interviews and reviewed surveillance footage corroborating their account.
The South Carolina Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (BHDD) — the parent agency of the Office of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities — said it "is aware of two recent arrests following an allegation of neglect at Coastal Regional Center," per regional CBS affiliate WCSC.
"BHDD requested the investigation and is working closely with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED)," the statement added. "Because this is an active case, any requests for information or updates should be made directly to SLED. As always, BHDD takes the safety of individuals in our care with the utmost seriousness and will continue to cooperate fully with law enforcement."
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