Plea entered in patient neglect case

Thursday, Feb. 12, 1998 | 10:28 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A justice of the peace in Tonopah Wednesday ordered a nursing assistant to perform 120 hours of community service for her part in the neglect of a patient in her 80s at the Nye Regional Medical Center.

Patricia Paul entered an Alford plea to a misdemeanor count of failure to report abuse, neglect or exploitation of an older person. The plea is an admission that the government could prove the elements of the crime but the defendant denies any responsibility.

Justice of the Peace Joe Maslach sentenced Paul to six months in jail and fined her $1,000. But he suspended the penalty on the condition that Paul stay out of trouble for one year.

Senior Deputy Attorney General Tim Terry said that an elderly female patient fell in the shower and dislocated her shoulder at the medical center in Tonopah. She never received any treatment and the injury was covered up, he said.

The woman died three or four months later but Terry said it could not be proven that there was any relationship between the injury and her death.

Nurse Jane Rudolph is awaiting a preliminary hearing March 17 on the charge. The third defendant, nurse Berniece Anderson, committed suicide in British Columbia, Canada, shortly after the filing of the charge in November 1997.