Two certified nurse aides (CNAs) were arrested and charged in May 2013 for taking pictures and videos of eleven nursing home residents at three separate nursing homes. David Rover, 25, and Thomas Mocera, 23, are both charged with Unlawful Surveillance and face up to four years in prison if convicted.
The two CNAs took photographs and videos of residents at the Woodhaven Nursing Home in Port Jefferson, NY, Jefferson’s Ferry in South Setauket, NY and the Long Island State Veteran’s Home in Stony Brook, NY. The photographs and videos were taken between September 2009 and March 2013.
The investigation was sparked in March 2013 when Rover, while working at the Woodhaven Nursing Home, was arrested for texting a picture of a resident’s genital area smothered in feces to a nurse aide student in August 2012. When investigators conducted a forensic analysis of Rover’s phone, they uncovered videos and photographs taken at two other facilities and by one other CNA.
Rover took over six pictures of a resident’s festering bedsore. In another instance, he recorded and extremely confused and frightened dementia patient. Mocera took photographs of a patient with an overflowing colostomy bag. He also made a video of himself taunting a resident by constantly moving her ice cream out of her reach.
Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman stated, “These illegal actions by two certified nursing home aides are abusive and alarming. These aides engaged in actions that are illegal and will not be tolerated in New York.”
A.G. Schneiderman Announces Indictment Of Aides Who Photographed Nursing Home Residents