Donald Lewis Midgett, a 72-year-old current resident at Grand Oaks Health and Rehabilitation Center on Palm Coast Parkway, was booked at the Flagler County jail on a felony charge of molesting a 97-year-old resident with Alzheimer’s disease. Midgett is being held on $50,000 bond.
A 35-year-old woman was on a conference call in a hall not far from where Midgett and the alleged victim were in a room when the 35 year old noticed that Midgett had his hand in the pants of the older woman, who was born in 1922. The 35 year old confronted Midgett, who took his hand out and said he hadn’t been doing anything. The Grand Oaks staff placed Midgett under surveillance and the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office called.
The staff at Grand Oaks told a deputy that Midgett has intact cognition based on a test and would have been aware of his actions. Midgett told a deputy that he and the alleged victim had always been close, just not romantically so, and that she always “responded to him,” in his words, even if not verbally so. He said she liked it when he held her. He conceded that he may have touched her but made a distinction: he had not fondled her–and that he’d touched her in the past in the same way and she’d never said no, which he took to mean consent.
He claimed it had never been brought to his attention that the alleged victim had Alzheimer’s or that she was 97. He was only aware that she was older, he claimed. The alleged victim herself was “incoherent” when the deputy spoke with her, “and not aware of what was going on,” as is usually the case with individuals past a certain stage with Alzheimer’s. The victim “kept complimenting my nails and when asked general questions, she laughed and looked at [a staffer] and I,” the deputy reported. Due to her condition, no further questions were asked.
Both Midgett’s and the woman’s family were to be contacted by authorities, as was the Department of Children and Families. The alleged victim, the deputy reported, “is both an elderly and disabled person. [Midgett] should have known that [the alleged victim] lacked the capacity to consent to his actions and failed to give consent.”
He was charged with lewd and lascivious molestation of an elderly, disabled adult, a third-degree felony.
A Department of Justice research report found that “Elders with dementia, compared to those without a diagnosis, were abused more often by persons known to them (family member, caregiver or another nursing home resident) than a stranger, presented behavior cues of distress rather than verbal disclosures, were easily confused and verbally manipulated, and pressured into sex by the mere presence of the offender. Suspects, who were identified as abusing elders with dementia, had less chance of being arrested, indicted or having the case plea-bargained.”
Issued in 2006, the report found that 93 percent of victims were women while offenders ranged in age from 13 to 90, with the mean age of victims, in a sample of 284 cases studied, at 78.8 years. A more recent review study specific to the sexual abuse of residents at nursing homes, published in 2015, found that 0.6 percent of residents are exposed to sexual abuse either by other residents or by facility staffers. “Residents in nursing homes are particularly vulnerable and at risk of abuse because they are more or less dependent on their caregivers owing to chronic illnesses, especially those with cognitive and behavioral problems,” the study found.
“Despite an increasing literature related to elder abuse, sexual abuse of older persons in general and of vulnerable adults living in nursing homes in particular is still sparsely described,” the study authors noted.
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E. Hoffa says
This is TERRIBLE but sadly it happen TOO many times and is NOT reported!
Wanda Clapper says
Well for one thing why was this man allowed to roam free in this place? Then how were they alone for so long for it to happen? Then why is the man getting charged alone when he is in this place so they can keep an eye on him. Isn’t that why he is there because he can’t take care of himself? There are just so many questions to ask this place that is responsible for this man.
Doctor Bags says
You almost can represent this man in court all of these questions you asked will definitely be the arguments of the court in his defense if his lawyer is any good he or she will go after the group home to blame sad story that happens everyday in these elder homes
Wanda Clapper says
It is sad. The people that are responsible for taking care of the elderly people in any home should be prepared for all things that could happen not wait till it happens then blame the person doing it. This man had dementia he is not inj his right state of mind. These people are responsible for what these people do. Of they are not suppose to be responsible for anything then why even have these homes and if that is the case just let them out to do what ever they want in the streets because that’s what they are doing in there. People are paying them to take care of their family members. If they are not doing that then they don’t deserve to get all that money they are getting. If someone baby sits for someone they get paid but if they are not watching that baby the mother has every right not to pay and this is the same situation. That poor man didn’t know what was going on. I have personally had family members that had dementia they had no clue what was going on they didn’t know anyone they didn’t know who they were let alone what they were doing. It’s just wrong that home needs to stand up and take responsibility for a job they were suppose to do but neglected it and that poor man.
ASF says
Hard to believe this guy doesn’t have a documented history. This is horrible. And I have heard increasingly disturbing things about Grand Oaks.
Heels Up Harris says
I’m speechless !!!!! Never let Granny near any “Dog Face Pony Soldiers”. If you get in trouble, take a shotgun and shoot 3 times out the back door into the sky…… Come-on Man
Creepy Joe
Mia says
Grand Oaks is a horrific place. My Aunt was there and they nearly killed her by unnecessarily changing her meds. She went in totally with it and left incoherent for almost 3 mos.
Residents cry and moan all day long. CNA’s were lol in the hallways at the patients while they called for help.
This incident doesn’t surprise me. It’s terrible.
Do not place your family members here.
dawnAvalentine says
I worked in a local facility (a locked down one)… meaning that all the residents had alzheimers/dementia. We were trained extensively to let the residents express their “love”, to one another, even to the point of letting them have sex, no matter the fact that they were married to someone outside of the facility. We did try to keep sex from happening by keeping residents confined to “public areas” but things do happen, and we were taught to never shame such behavior, and to never to bring our own morality into their lives and activities. Basically we respected them as adults as long as there was consent between the two, both being of unsound mind.
However in this situation, its clearly the case, that one individual, the man, does have his cognitive faculties, and therein lies the problem. Its like a child molester saying that the child “gave consent”, the child “liked the attention”. No, no, no, absolutely wrong……
This woman was taken advantage of. This woman needs to be protected from this man.
This man is a predator, and his actions have indicated he is a danger to the vulnerable. I’m so glad they punished him, he should never be near vulnerable people again.
Wanda Clapper says
I’m sorry but that is helping them commit adultry and that’s just crazy. It’s also letting them get away with rape. If those people have dementia that means 9 out of 10 times they are not in their right mind while it’s happening then. If this is the case then one of the people that’s having sex is doing it with someone that if they were in their right mind would never have done that because they knew it was wrong. So that is letting them get away with raping the other patient. They are out of their mind and don’t remember anything happening to them That is just as bad as one of the orderlies having sex with one of the patients without their consent. I’m sorry but that’s wrong. Places that do that kind of stuff need to be shut down. I honestly think they are all ludacris in the first place because of how they treat ther patients.
Dawna says
These residents who i cared for, whose home is a care facility , all w later stage dementia/alzheimers, still retain the rights and freedoms given to adult citizens of our country. Unfortunately, Alzheimers does not respect marriage vows. They do still feel happiness, and sadness, are allowed to make their own decisions. They are not in jail, they live communally, with others equally afflicted.
Wanda M Clapper says
Look I’m sorry but if a person has no right of mind they don’t really feel happiness anyway. They don’t know anything. I know both my uncle and aunt both died from dementia I have seen it first hand I know how it is and what it does. Those people shouldn’t be roaming the halls by themselves let alone allowed to have sex with whomever they want. Yes they probably do have feelings of certain things but that doesn’t mean let them sleep with other people. If one of their family members came in and saw them having sex with a strange I guarantee you they wouldn’t be happy. If that was me I would be suing that place. That’s just ridiculous. There is nothing right about that and everything wrong. That is just so disgusting and perverted to have something like that going on. Those people need to get their family members out of there.