Nursing Home Operator Gets 6-Month Sentence
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A San Fernando Valley nursing home operator who ignored state regulators was sentenced on Friday to six months in jail for abusing elderly clients.
Perla Nunez, 40, of Upland, is also barred from running a nursing home for three years. Nunez pleaded no contest to charges that Ambassador Care residential center in Tujunga was in violation of health and safety codes and lacked adequate food for its residents.
She will serve the time concurrent with a two-year federal prison term for a related Medicare fraud conviction.
The California Department of Social Services revoked Nunez’s license and ordered the 48-bed facility closed in January 1999, but Nunez kept it open. Months later, inspectors found bedrooms smelling of urine and feces, blood-stained sinks and cockroach infestations.
“This is one of the first cases you’re going to see in a serious crackdown on elder abuse,” said Frank Mateljan, deputy city attorney.
When social services took away Nunez’s license for both Ambassador Care and the Acacia Inn nursing home in Pasadena, she made failed attempts to reopen under the names Perla Torio and Perla Cardines, according to the department’s licensing division.
Residents of the two homes were moved to other facilities last October.
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