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Centennial nursing home employees face felony elderly abuse charges

Patience Jackson and Zainab Namale face elder abuse charges

Editor’s note: On Wednesday, Arapahoe County sheriff’s deputies arrested Zainab Namale, 34, on her arrest warrant, according to a sheriff’s office update.

Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office deputies on Tuesday arrested a Centennial-based nursing home employee on suspicion of severely injuring a 92-year-old dementia patient last month.

Patience Jackson, 33, a certified nursing assistant, was arrested at her home. She faces three felony charges of criminal negligence, complicity and abusing an at-risk adult. An arrest warrant is also out for Zainab Namale, 34, a licensed practical nurse. She faces the same charges as Jackson, according to an Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office news release.

Both are employees at Orchard Park Health Care Center, according to authorities.

Namale wasn’t present at her home when authorities came to arrest her on Tuesday, and has 24 hours to respond to her arrest warrant, a sheriff’s office spokesperson told The Denver Gazette.

The 92-year-old woman, a dementia patient at the Orchard Park Health Care Center in Centennial, was transported to Sky Ridge Medical Center four weeks ago with a two-bone (tibia-fibula) fracture in her lower leg, sheriff’s officials said.

At the hospital, an investigator learned that the woman’s injuries were “not consistent with the injuries stated in the report by Orchard Park Health Care Center,” authorities said.

Sheriff’s officials noted the nursing home’s report said the 92-year-old was found sitting in her wheelchair, “screaming for help in terrible pain, that no one had seen her fall, and they did not know what happened.”

After an investigation, authorities said the two employees allegedly lied about how the woman suffered a broken leg, according to the sheriff’s office.

“The investigator also believes both suspects were complicit in their actions to hide the truth of what happened to the victim.”

Investigators believe the woman suffered the broken leg on May 8, officials said.

The investigation, which remains ongoing, includes other employees and whether or not others were involved, officials said.

The investigation remains ongoing.



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