Tuesday, August 19, 2008; Posted: 4:27 p.m. (CDT)
The Curnutt family teamed up with Wes Bledsoe, the founder of A Perfect Cause, and showed pictures as well as documentation as they told their story at the capitol Tuesday morning.
Bledsoe says, "Just a year ago, James Curnutt was raped while residing in the Oak Hills Living Center in Jones."
He goes on to say, "In February of this year, James' wife went to the facility and found bruises on his body."
James, the alleged victim, has Pick's disease.
"It's like a bad case of Alzheimer's," says Bledsoe.
Richard Curnutt, James' father, says, "I know it's terminal, I can live with that but I can't live with my son needing care and not getting it."
Curnutt says the family contacted the Oklahoma State Department of Health about the alleged incidents.
"I think law enforcement needs to be notified," says Curnutt.
But authorities were never notified and the family wants that to change in the future.
KSBI-TV contacted O.S.D.H. and officials released this statement:
"No criminal intent was established. Had criminal intent been established, long-term care would have follow up with the facility to ensure they had reported to police. The Oklahoma State Department of Health takes its responsibility and commitment to the residents of long-term care facilities very seriously."
Bledsoe says, "Often times, people like James aren't able to tell us what happened. If they can't tell us what happened, we need to use the technology available to us today and that is to use video monitoring in the common areas."
"Lets face it, we've got a lot of baby boomers getting ready to go to nursing homes, we've got a lot of soldiers coming back and we wouldn't want them to go through what James went through," says Curnutt.
We also contacted the Oak Hills Living Center on Tuesday. A representative tells us their attorney is not available and they can not comment.
As for those changes, Bledsoe would also like to see stronger laws to keep nursing home residents safe.
