TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas will give its residents more information about the activities of law enforcement agencies under a new law taking effect in July.

Gov. Sam Brownback’s office announced Thursday that he had signed the measure Wednesday.

Under the new law, affidavits used to support arrest warrants and search warrants will be available upon request to the public. A decades-old statute had closed the records to the public unless a court otherwise ordered them to be unsealed.

Supporters say the new law will make law enforcement agencies more accountable.

Brownback says the new law still protects legitimate law enforcement interests. It allows prosecutors to seek to have records from arrests and search warrants sealed or redacted to protect sensitive information.

By Dave Ranney
KHI News Service

TOPEKA — Butler County Attorney Brian Divinney said today that his office is considering filing criminal charges against at least one nursing home employee suspected of abusing an elderly resident at an Andover care facility.

“We’ve been working with the Andover Police Department on this case for some months now,” Divinney said. “We’re considering charges. We’re close, but at the same we have to make sure the responsible parties are charged responsibly. I suspect it’ll be fairly soon, we just need to tamp a few things down.”

Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services on Wednesday announced that Victoria Falls nursing home in Andover had been fined at least $155,800 for failing to protect its residence from abusive workers.
KDADS inspectors filed a 150-page report after spending days at the facility last month.
The report stated that at least four employees – three aides and a nurse – had been verbally or physically abusive toward a resident who was described as having “disorganized thinking” and a “severe cognitive impairment.”

A portion of the findings in the report were linked to a clandestine video from an unidentified “outside source” that showed a night-shift nurse dragging the resident from a wheelchair, dropping the resident to the floor “in the middle of the room directly onto the resident’s bottom,” and leaving the resident alone in the dark. The resident can be heard pleading for help on the video.

An aide helped the resident back into bed after the resident had been on the floor for almost 45 minutes.

In the video, the aide can be heard “sternly” telling the resident, “You are not the only person here. You have taken away from other people needing care. You have been in here acting a fool.”

Later, the nurse later can be seen throwing “a neck pillow at the resident, hitting the resident in the face,” and telling the resident to shut up.

Though the report does not identify the resident, aide, or nurse by name or by gender, Andover Police Department Lt. Brandon Stewart on Thursday said the resident and employees are women.

The video, he said, was taken by family members who “had reason to believe their mother was being abused.”

Family members, Stewart said, shared the video with police on Nov. 3, 2013. The incident involving the resident being dropped on floor occurred between 2 .a.m. and 3 a.m. on Sept. 2, 2013.

Divinney said that if charges are filed, the video “would be among the exhibits that would be used against a defendant in trial.”

The KDADS surveyors also cited Victoria Falls for poor care, poor recordkeeping, being understaffed, not performing background checks on prospective employees, not doing enough to investigate reports of suspected abuse and neglect, not doing enough to ensure residents’ dignity, not doing enough to keep track of residents’ personal funds, and not doing enough to prevent cuts and bruises.

The $155,800 fine is thought to be the largest levied against a Kansas nursing home.

“I’ve been at this for some 15 years now, and I don’t recall a fine of that size,” said Debra Zehr, chief executive of LeadingAge Kansas, a trade association that represents many of the state’s non-profit, long-term-care facilities.

“The findings at Victoria Falls are horrifying and indicate not just an instance in which a single worker committed abuse, but rather a top-down culture that permitted verbal and physical abuse,” Zehr wrote in an email to KHI News Service.

The fine, imposed by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, represents an $8,200-per-day penalty for each day – March 26 through April 13 – that Victoria Falls, was found to be out of compliance with state and federal safety standards. An additional $1,000 fine is being levied for each day the facility remains out of compliance after April 13.

Victoria Falls, which has about 60 residents, is owned and operated by Watercrest Communities and DB Consulting, Andover-based companies owned by Dennis and Debbie Bush.

According to the Watercrest Communities website, the company also owns Victoria Falls Assisted Living in Andover, Carrington at Cherry Creek an assisted living facility in Wichita, and Carrington Health Center, a residential health care facility in Wichita.

The Bushes have the right to appeal the findings and the fines.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — First lady Michelle Obama is traveling to Topeka to meet with students and speak at an event honoring the city’s high school graduates.

Her visit Friday comes a day before the 60th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic Brown v. Board of Education decision declaring segregated schools unconstitutional.

The announcement of her trip last month stirred criticism in the Kansas capital.

She’d initially planned to speak Saturday during a combined graduation ceremony for five schools, but some parents and students worried that the arena wouldn’t be large enough to accommodate all the students’ family members.

The White House said the first lady would meet before her speech with high school students participating in a program preparing poor children and children in foster care for higher education.

 

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — More than 170 members of the U.S. House have signed a letter commemorating the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the case of Brown v. Board of Education.

Kansas Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins planned to deliver the letter to Topeka’s Brown v. Board National Historic Site on Friday, one day before the 60th anniversary of the ruling that outlawed segregated schools.

The letter is signed by the Kansas House delegation, as well as House Speaker John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.

The Brown site is housed in a former all-black school where the lead plaintiff’s daughter and another plaintiff’s child in the desegregation case were students. Exhibits tell the story of the 1954 decision.

IOLA, Kan. (AP) — The upcoming Southeast Kansas Farm-to-Fork Summit this month is focusing on policies to help Kansas farmers make healthful foods accessible and affordable for all residents.

The event is hosted by the Kansas Rural Center and the Allen County Growing Rural Opportunities Works Council. The daylong gathering will take place May 29 at the Fellowship Regional Church in Iola.

It’s the second in a series of regional summits across Kansas this spring and summer intended to spur a dialogue about Kansas farms, food and community health. The first gathering last month in Greensburg focused on community food and water policy.

The next summit is planned for June 25 in Colby.