Health Aide Throws Urine, Hot Sauce, Tries to Burn Home: Warrant

VERNON, CT — A home health aide is accused of running amok inside a Vernon residence, including threatening to burn the place down with her client still in it.

Police released details of the case Thursday.

At 12:15 a.m. on Jan. 3, police responded to a home on Prospect Street for a disorderly complaint, according to a warrant. The owner of the home said that Sheri Highsmith, 29, a live-in home heath aide who works for a friend and and tenant, had been screaming "nonsensical statements" and breaking windows on a porch door, according to a warrant.

Her permanent address is in Middletown, according to a warrant.

Highsmith also threw a bottle of hot sauce out the broken porch door window and it splattered all over the landlord's car, causing $1,153 in damage, according to a warrant.

When officers approached the door, Highsmith yelled "I'm not (expletive) playing with you all."

She threatened to blow up the home, threw something through a window at officers and deadbolted the kitchen door, according to a warrant.

Officers then saw an orange glow inside the home, looked inside closer and saw that Highsmith had papers on fire on the stove, according to a warrant.

The tenant, who suffers from dementia, was inside the home, according to a warrant.

Police kicked open the door and the 5-foot-7, 250-pound Highsmith hurled a bucket or urine at them, according to a warrant. The kitchen was in "disarray," according to the warrant and items tosses about included a knife and smashed television, according to a warrant.

She was brought to Rockville General Hospital for am emergency evaluation, but was able to sneak out the next morning, likely with the help of her mother, police said.

Vernon police then secured a warrant for Highsmith's arrest and she was later picked up in Middletown and charged with reckless burning, breach of peace, second-degree threatening, first-degree criminal mischief and interfering, according to a warrant.

Photo Credit: VPD