WBOC-TV 16, Delmarvas News Leader, FOX 21 - Former Salisbury Group Home Caregiver Convicted of Neglect

Former Salisbury Group Home Caregiver Convicted of Neglect

10/21/2008 3:08 PM ET; Updated 4:18 PM ET

SALISBURY, Md.- Maryland's Attorney General's Office says a former caregiver at a Salisbury group home pleaded guilty Tuesday to neglecting a vulnerable adult.

Wicomico County Circuit Court Judge W. Newton Jackson, III sentenced Renald Nelo Orneus, 21, of Salisbury to six months in the Wicomico County Detention Center, suspended, and one year supervised probation.

Orneus was a paid caregiver at a group home on Meadowlark Drive in Salisbury, and run by Bayshore Services Inc. According to court documents, Orneus was assigned to work at the
Meadowlark Drive address as an overnight caregiver from 3 p.m. on Sept. 5, 2007 until 8 a.m. on Sept. 6, 2007. 

However, state prosecutors say that Orneus left the three adult residents diagnosed with developmental disabilities alone and unattended in their group home from just before midnight on Sept. 5 until 8 a.m. on Sept. 6. According to prosecutors, the three residents were left alone for nine hours while Orneus went to visit with some friends who worked the midnight shift at a nearby poultry processing plant.

According to court records, the victim in this case requires 24 hours care, is severely mentally retarded, has Down's syndrome, is non-verbal and needs total assistance with his activities of daily living.

According to the Attorney General's Office, the other two residents of the group home are also developmentally disabled, and suffer from other disabilities, the other two residents do not require 24 hour care, and thus Orneus was not charged with criminal neglect with regard to the other two residents.