June 1, 2004
New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer today announced that an Ogdensburg City Court jury has convicted Allen F. Jenner, a licensed practical nurse formerly employed at the St. Joseph Nursing Home in Ogdensburg, of abusing an elderly female patient last year.
On May 25, after deliberating for less than two hours, the jury convicted Jenner of Wilful Violation of Health Laws.
Judge George Silver, who presided at the two-day trial, set sentencing for August 9, 2004. Jenner, 48, of 212 St. Lawrence Avenue in Ogdensburg, faces up to a year in prison. Jenner was convicted of restraining an 85-year-old resident on April 13, 2003, by pressing his right elbow into the resident's neck with such force that the residents head snapped violently back, struck the back of the geri-chair in which she was sitting, and left a bruise on her neck. The incident occurred while Jenner was performing a blood sugar glucose test on the resident.
In a related matter, Dale Legault, the former Director of Nursing and Acting Administrator of the facility, previously admitted that he willfully failed to notify state officials that Jenner had abused the patient, as required by state law. Although two nurses aides notified Legault of the incident, he failed to investigate their allegations for more than a month or prepare an incident report for the facility.
Later, when confronted by state investigators, Legault fabricated a report that falsely recorded that he had investigated the abuse immediately after it was reported to him.
Legault, 58, formerly of Waddington, New York, pleaded guilty on September 15, 2003, in Ogdensburg City Court to Wilful Violation of Health Laws. He was sentenced to a three-year conditional discharge.
