Abington Glenview Staff Mocked, Abused 91-Year-Old Woman: Lawsuit

GLENVIEW, IL — The family of a former patient at a Glenview nursing home filed suit Wednesday against the facility and two of its caregivers who were arrested after police said they posted a video to social media showing them taunting the elderly woman, who suffers from dementia.

The video shows Margaret Collins, 91, then a resident of the Abington of Glenview at 3901 Glenview Road, attempting to fend off a hospital gown being dangled in her face. It is captioned with the phrase "Margaret hates gowns" and laughing emojis. It was posted to Snapchat on Dec. 21, 2018, and shared with Collins' family a week later, according to police and the family's lawsuit.

According to her family, it was well known at the nursing home that Collins feared hospital gowns. She was unable to sleep and became panicked at night after the incident, and her family moved her out of the Abington a few days later.

The nursing home suspended the two certified nursing assistants for six days for an "abuse allegation" pending its internal investigation, according to police and the family's lawsuit.

The two employees remained on staff at the facility until the Glenview Police Department opened its own investigation into the video. Police said one staff member who had worked at the Abington for 20 years witnessed the incident and told investigators she did not believe anything inappropriate had occurred. The witness said she did not see either nursing assistant video recording the incident.

Brayan Cortez, 20, of the 10300 block of Michael Todd Terrace, Glenview, and Jamie Montesa, 21, of the 900 block Central Road, Mount Prospect, were charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct after admitting that they had recorded and shared the video on the internet. Prosecutors did not approve a felony charge of unauthorized video recording because Collins' account of the incident included numerous inconsistencies, which police said was likely due to her advanced age and dementia.

"They deliberately taunted and bullied my mom," said Collins' daughter, Joan Biebel, in a statement. "They’re not even supposed to have phones when they’re on-duty. They did this for their own entertainment, and posted it for their friends."

Cortez told police he had an ongoing joke with Collins where he would offer her a hospital gown and she would laugh and say she was not going to wear it. He said he did not mean any harm and was not aware that the woman was uncomfortable — or that his girlfriend, Montesa, was recording it.

Montesa said she has recorded Collins before but "was unaware that recording someone in their residence without their permission was a crime," according to the Glenview detective who interviewed both caregivers. She admitted realizing Collins was uncomfortable while Cortez tried to give her a hospital gown. The older women believed the gowns were too dirty and preferred to wear her own clothes, Montesa told police.

According to Illinois Department of Health, the Abington's investigation "only heard overly positive comments for both employees" and concluded the allegation was unsubstantiated. The state agency found the nursing home "failed to implement its ‘Abuse Prevention Policy’" because it did not make sure a resident was "free from staff-inflicted emotional abuse."

Attorney Steven Levin of Levin & Perconti, who is representing Collins' family, said Abington only began submitting its mandatory report to the state after the couple confessed to police.

"They didn’t do what they’re required to do; they didn’t call the police. They didn’t call the state ombudsman. They didn’t call IDPH, and they denied to the family these people had traumatized Mrs. Collins even though there was a video proving that they did," Levin said in a statement. "This was elder abuse, and they did nothing about it."

"They were supposed to be caring for her, but instead they frightened her and wanted to embarrass her," said Tom Collins, Margaret Collins’ son.

"What’s really scary," said Biebel, Collins' daughter, "is I wonder how many other people they’ve done this to."

The 18-count lawsuit accuses the Abington of violating the Nursing Home Care Act, negligence, privacy violations and more. It said Cortez's "epithets and manipulative jests" were "extreme and outrageous." Montesa's conduct was "beyond the bounds of decency as tolerated in a civil society," according to the suit, which seeks more than $1 million in damages from the nursing home and its two former staffers.

"These kids live their lives on social media and think nothing of posting things that can really damage others," said the Levin & Perconti attorney who filed the suit, Margaret Battersby Black, in a statement. "This was done by the very people supposed to be caring for her, but instead they terrified and mortified this poor woman. And the nursing home just shrugged it off and decided it didn’t happen. Yet, when the police did their investigation, both [certified nursing assistants] immediately 'fessed up.'"

Abington of Glenview did not respond to a request to speak with a representative about the allegations. Cortez and Montesa are due back in court in Skokie on Aug. 26.