Technician’s firing for abuse upheld

Tuesday, July 29, 1997 | 9:45 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A state hearing officer has upheld the firing of a mental retardation technician accused of abusing patients by withholding food and grabbing them in the crotch at the Desert Regional Center in Las Vegas.

Hearing Officer John Graves said the severity and frequency of the abuse and neglect by Alice Conley was "shocking." He sharply criticized other staff members who failed to promptly report the incidents, and said their inaction could result in the center being decertified.

Graves said this was "a low-water mark for client integrity and protection at the center," which has about 90 mentally retarded patients.

Conley denied all the incidents at a hearing held in May and said she had never abused any patients.

Graves said the "most egregious" incident involved Conley dancing with a male patient, pinching his behind and then grabbing his crotch, accounting for charges of sexual abuse and harassment. Graves said the patient reacted to the abuse by biting his hands and throwing temper tantrums for two months.

Other allegations included Conley withholding food from a patient until "he learned to behave," spraying water from a bottle on clients to make it appear they had a bath and locking a female patient outside the unit.

One of Conley's female patients had wandered off into an unauthorized area. After Conley received a warning from her superior, she allegedly slapped the client on her helmet and knocked her against a wall for getting her in trouble. The patient wore a helmet to prevent her from eating or swallowing inanimate objects.

Metro Police investigated but no criminal charges were ever filed because there was no physical evidence of abuse.

"Luckily for all concerned, no apparent lasting abuse or neglect or trauma was visited upon these clients by Conley, or by the neglect of the remaining mental retardation technicians," Graves said in his report, released Friday.

He said the center could be decertified because of the slow reporting of the incidents and that it could lose federal funds, which amount to 50 percent of its support.

The three technicians who eventually reported the incidents said they were afraid of Conley, who denied ever making threats against any of them. Two of them said they informed their superior, Elisha Love, who replied that she did not see any of the incidents and could do nothing.

Love was demoted and one of the technicians, Mary Arcaro, who made a report of the abuse, was promoted in her place.

Graves said he was concerned about the slow reporting by the workers. And when Love failed to take action, Graves said the employees did not bring the incidents to a superior employee until much later.

He suggested the center was too lackadaisical in dealing with the behavior of the employees, saying the discipline was "hardly commensurate with their misconduct."