Aide convicted of abusing Baltimore man at nursing home had a history of allegations of violent behavior
The information turned up in a lawsuit filed by the family of Ellsworth Johnson-Bey against a nursing home chain; it’s one of multiple recent efforts by Maryland residents and advocates to target conditions in long-term care facilities
Above: Autumn Lake Post Acute Care Center in northeast Baltimore, where Ellsworth Johnson-Bey was living in 2022 when an aide was caught on video pushing him down. He died about four months later at an area hospital. (Fern Shen)
After an aide at a Baltimore nursing facility was caught on video in 2022 pushing a patient down, resulting in a painful fall and broken hip, the man’s death four months later was ruled a homicide.
The aide, who pleaded guilty to assault and abuse charges, went to prison.
In a pending civil suit, the man’s family has uncovered that Obiageriaku “Jane” Iheanacho had a previous history of alleged patient abuse.
The complaint argues her “history of violent behavior toward patients and residents” should have been obvious to Autumn Lake Post Acute Care Center in northeast Baltimore, where she worked, and to Eshyft, a N.J.-based, third-party staffing company that was her technical employer.
On job application forms, Iheanacho left blanks or indicated that she did not want Eshyft to contact her previous employers, documents show.
On one form, she listed having worked for a Baltimore company “from 2021-01-01 to 2021-01-01.” A notation by Eshyft indicates that this employer was contacted, but was “unwilling to provide info.”
Nevertheless, Iheanacho was hired as a geriatric nursing aide who subsequently worked shifts at Autumn Lake.
“It is no surprise that defendant Iheanacho was evasive and vague on her employment application and reference forms,” argues the complaint, filed against Autumn Lake’s corporate parent, Post-Acute Care Center OPCO LLC,; Eshyft’s corporate parent, Shiftster LLC; and Iheanacho.
“Defendant Iheanacho had at least two previous police encounters with regards to her being accused of assaulting a patient under her care,” the complaint notes.
“There were just so many red flags,” said Matt Ballenger, one of the lawyers representing the family of Ellsworth “Brother Bey” Johnson-Bey, a longtime advocate for ex-offenders, who declined rapidly after the fall and died on September 5, 2022.
A photo of Ellsworth Johnson-Bey held by his daughter. (Fern Shen)
Rough Care
The Johnson-Bey lawsuit is only the latest effort by patients and their advocates in Maryland to bring accountability to long-term care facility owners and to the state agencies charged with regulating them.
A suit filed last year by six disabled nursing home residents against the state charged that the Maryland Department of Health (MDH) failed to inspect nursing homes for years, resulting in bedsores, infections, traumatic isolation and other ills disproportionately suffered by people with mobility limitations.
Those residents — many of whom cannot work and rely on public assistance — are often left in soiled clothes or bedding, their calls for help going unanswered for hours at a time, the suit argues.
When the complaint was filed, Maryland had the second-highest percentage of overdue annual inspections in the nation after Kentucky. Publicly available data show the state failed to inspect 104 nursing facilities for a period of more than four years.
A federal judge in Baltimore recently certified the case as a class action and denied the state’s motion to dismiss it.
Spokesman Chase Cook said MDH “cannot comment on active litigation” but added that “the Department remains committed to the health and safety of all Maryland residents.”
About a month after the federal lawsuit was filed, the longtime head of the state office responsible for nursing home inspections announced her retirement.
At the next session of the Maryland General Assembly earlier this year, the state’s inspection backlog was a hot topic. Lawmakers eventually passed SB376, requiring MDH to begin providing quarterly reports updating them on he progress of nursing home inspections.
Advocates reportedly would have preferred a stronger version of the bill that would have allowed counties to sign a memorandum of understanding with MDH to take over on inspections for nursing homes, freeing up the state to work on the remaining backlog.
In Annapolis, nursing home companies are known to wield tremendous power thanks to high-paid lobbyists and generous campaign contributions.
Pushing for at least $75,000 in damages, the lawyers who filed the Johnson-Bey lawsuit last October obtained documents that show:
• Iheanacho was accused in September 2020 of striking the arm of a 70-year-old patient at a Parkville facility while helping her to shower. (The victim did not want to press charges, but said “she no longer wants her to be her caretaker,” a police report said.)
• The following year, at a Dundalk facility, Iheanacho was accused of striking the forehead of a 46-year-old bedridden man in need of help with his urinal. (Police responded, Iheanacho denied hitting him and no charges were filed.)
• In early 2022, at Autumn Lake, the same facility where Johnson-Bey was to be assaulted by Iheanacho three months later, a 70-year-old resident reported that the aide “was rough during care and hit him.” (The facility sent a self-reporting form to the state, including Iheanacho’s denial of wrongdoing. Nothing came of it.)
“A reasonable and prudent employer would not have hired Defendant Iheanacho without conducting further investigations into her background,” argues the lawsuit, which was brought by Johnson-Bey’s daughter Delinda Johnson-Blake and sons Malcolm Jamal Graves and Carlmichael Cannady.
A May 2021 form filled out by Eshyft noting the response after one of Iheanacho’s references was reached by phone: “unwilling to provide info, confirmed she worked with them.”
“Not legally responsible”
Asked to comment, attorneys for Autumn Lake and Shiftster LLC have not provided a response. Nor did Aaron David Greisman, named in the lawsuit and currently listed as president of Howell, N.J.-based Eshyft/Towne Nursing.
Autumn Lake, which advertises prominently at Baltimore Ravens games, has 36 nursing homes and rehab facilities in Maryland and operates others in Connecticut, New Jersey, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
There was no attorney listed for Iheanacho in the online case file for the lawsuit. Iheanacho, who received a sentence of 25 years in prison, with all but seven years suspended.
In papers filed as part of the lawsuit, Autumn Lake and Shiftster deny responsibility for Johnson-Bey’s death.
“The plaintiffs’ injuries and damages, if any, are the result of the acts and/or omissions of others, for which this defendant is not liable and for which this defendant has no responsibility, control, or right of control,” Shiftster’s response said.
Autumn Lake’s filing said the complaint made “exaggerated allegations” regarding the company’s scope and quality of services.
“The alleged injuries and/or damages, if any, are due to a naturally occurring disease process or ongoing medical condition for which defendant is not and may not be legally responsible,” it asserted.