Three former staffers at the South Florida State Hospital in Pembroke Pines are accused of beating a mentally impaired patient, according to court documents.
The incident happened June 7, 2014, at the facility at 800 E. Cypress Drive. The patient, identified during a bond court hearing as C.S., was then 25.
He allegedly stuck a female staffer, prompting Mark Anthony Hansen, 54; Osagboro Khalid Sameem, 47 and Romondo Dean Ivey, 34, to take control of him. The female staffer did not seek prosecution of C.S., Pembroke Pines police reports show.
A witness told investigators that after nurses left the area, Hansen, Sameem and Ivey kicked C.S. in the head.
Ivey then took a broom stick from a janitor’s cart, broke it in half and struck C.S. in the presence of the other two men, the police report said. Ivey allegedly said to Hansen, ‘Do you think the camera got me?’
Hansen is accused of then grabbing a squirt bottle with orange cleaning solution and spraying it in C.S.’s face and eyes, causing him to scream. A patient also battered C.S., police said.
Video showed the men and the other patient going in and out of the day room where C.S. was, and showed Ivey taking the broom stick into the room and bringing it back in two pieces without the brush, court documents say.
The men left C.S. in the day room with the other patient, and at one point video appeared to show C.S.’s foot enter the hallway before it is dragged back into the day room, out of the camera’s view.
C.S. was later seen on video stumbling down a hall, using a wall for support while holding a towel that had blood on it. His face was red, swollen and had minor bleeding. Medical records obtained by police listed C.S.’s injuries: Fractured nasal bones; swollen ears and scratches on his face and forehead, according to an investigator’s report.
Investigators said C.S. had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and mild mental retardation, among other disorders.
He told a psychiatrist at the hospital that staff wearing blue uniforms assaulted him and that he was hit with sticks and attacked by patients, but was unable to name who did it, according to a police report. When staff asked him what happened, he said, “I don’t know.”
C.S. also told an investigator that Ivey hit him, and Ivey denied the allegations, according to court documents.
The state attorney’s office has charged the three men with one count each of abuse of a disabled adult.
They are accused of “knowingly or willfully abusing a disabled adult by intentionally inflicting physical or psychological injury … by striking him repeatedly, spraying him with cleaner and kicking him, without causing great bodily harm, permanent disability or permanent disfigurement,” the charging document states.
Correct Care Recovery Solutions operates the State Hospital of South Florida. In a statement late Tuesday, a spokesman said the three men hadn’t been employed by the company since 2014.
The Florida Department of Children and Families said an adult protective services investigation began the day of the alleged beating and was closed two months later.
State law restricts release of confidential records in this case, in order to protect the rights of those who were investigated as well as the vulnerable adult, the department said.
Sameem, of Davie, was arrested Aug. 27 and released from a Broward County jail on a $3,500 bond. He has filed a written plea of not guilty. His attorney, Anthony Peyton, did not reply to a request for comment.
Hollywood police arrested Hansen on Sunday. He was released Monday from a Broward County jail on a $3,500 bond. He is being represented by the Broward Public Defender’s Office.
Ivey, of Miami, turned himself in to authorities Monday and appeared in bond court the next day. Judge Michael Davis called the charge against him “a very, very serious offense” before ordering a $15,000 bond. Ivey’s lawyer could not be identified.
ljtrischitta@sunsentinel.com, 954-356-4233 or Twitter @LindaTrischitta
