Inset: Ann Cowan (Coweta County Jail via Newnan Times-Herald). Corinth Road Personal Care Home in Newnan, Ga. (Google Maps).
A caregiver at a Georgia nursing home is accused of twisting the wrist of one patient and standing by and doing nothing after another patient — an 83-year-old with dementia — fell.
Ann Cowan, 63, stands accused of two counts of exploitation and intimidation of disabled adults and elderly persons.
The Coweta County Sheriff's Office told Law&Crime that the investigation began on May 27 when it received a report about elder abuse at Corinth Road Personal Care Home in Newnan, which is 40 miles southwest of Atlanta. Deputies were sent a video that Cowan took allegedly showing an elderly patient falling. Instead of helping the man, Cowan reportedly kept filming.
This sparked an investigation in which detectives uncovered "multiple reports involving allegations of abuse" against Cowan.
"Investigators also obtained and reviewed photographic evidence that allegedly showed Ms. Cowan placing medication on a door in a location inaccessible to a wheelchair-bound resident," cops wrote.
Local ABC affiliate WSB received the video showing the dementia patient falling.
"Did you slide off your chair like you're about to now?" Cowan allegedly said before the man fell.
The Newnan Times-Herald spoke with the man's daughter, Danielle Slappey, who said he moved into the home about a month before Cowan took the video. Within days, he was reportedly found unresponsive and taken to the hospital. He returned to the nursing home after several days, but his physical health continued to decline.
He suffered bloodied hands from hitting doorways while trying to maneuver his wheelchair, his daughter told the Times-Herald. He also reportedly received a gash on his arm from falling. Staff at the facility also allegedly stopped helping him use his phone so he could call family members.
"I told him I was going to get him out of there," Slappey said.
She transferred him to a different nursing home, and he improved physically within days, she told the newspaper.
WSB spoke with a former co-worker of Cowan's.
"I knew that she was hateful, but I never realized she was that hateful," Brittney McPhail told the TV station.
McPhail said she saw Cowan assault another man in his 80s who had dementia.
"He went to reach for her chest, and I'm not saying what he did wasn't wrong, but she grabbed his wrist and bent it back and threatened to break his 'f—ing' wrist if he ever tried to touch her again," McPhail said.
Cowan was located and arrested in nearby DeKalb County and taken to the Coweta County Jail. Her next court date is not listed. Nursing home staff told WSB and the Times-Herald that Cowan no longer works at the facility.
The investigation remains ongoing.