After a case involving the mistreatment of a 90-year-old woman at a Bel Aire nursing home, a Wichita man has been sentenced to a year of probation and he was ordered not to be employed in any capacity where he would be providing medical care to patients.
A guilty plea was entered in July by 31-year-old Jose Luis Reyes, Jr. to a felony charge of mistreatment of an elderly person. He was a certified nurse aide at Catholic Care Center in Bel Aire when one of the residents, identified as S.C., passed away on December 10th, 2022. An autopsy found that the resident died of heart disease, but she had suffered injuries at the time of her death, including broken bones in her legs, bruising under her armpits and a bruise to her head.
An investigation by Bel Aire police found that Reyes had entered the woman’s room shortly before her death and tried to move her from her bed to a wheelchair without getting help from other staff. Evidence showed the woman either fell or was dropped onto the floor of her room on the day she died. According to medical records, the nursing home staff was aware that S.C. required at least two people to move her at all times.
As part of the guilty plea, Reyes agreed to surrender any Kansas certifications for providing medical care to patients. If he fails to comply with the probation conditions, he could serve a prison sentence of nine months.
