Three workers found not guilty in Quadrangle elder-abuse case

    After Lois McCallister told her family that workers at the Quadrangle in Haverford Township were abusing her, her relatives set up a “nanny cam” to catch the culprits in the act.

    And the nanny cam delivered.

    The judge in the case called the workers’ behavior in the video “wholly inappropriate and repugnant.”

    But not criminal, so the three workers are off the hook.

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    “I was surprised at the acquittal,” said Pam Walz, supervising attorney in the Aging and Disabilities Unit for Philadelphia’s Community Legal Services.

    She says this case may indicate a need for more stringent and targeted elder-abuse laws, but she thinks there’s another way to prevent this sort of thing.

    “It’s much better, rather than having to prosecute people right and left, to set up a system and have people properly trained so that people aren’t being abused in the first place,” said Walz.

    She said the senior population is booming, fueling demand for personal-care homes such as the Quadrangle– and for people to work in them.

    “There’s a huge need for people to do these jobs,” said Walz. “And it’s not as hard to get hired as you might think.”

    McCallister’s family isn’t giving up. They’ve filed a civil suit against the Quadrangle and its corporate parents.

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