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Health Workers Charged with Negligence, Theft

A Jacksonville group home operator was arrested and charged with false imprisonment and negligence of disabled adults when deplorable conditions at his facility were discovered, the Florida Times-Union reports.

According to the Times-Union, 10 people had to be relocated from the Agnes Street Home for the Elderly in Jacksonville once police and other officials discovered padlocks on the gates, an overflowing septic tank, and one resident who did not have access to a restroom at all and had to urinate into an empty RC Cola bottle.

Meanwhile in St. Petersburg, a worker at an assisted living facility faces charges after stealing $21,000 worth of jewelry from the facility’s elderly residents, the Tampa Bay Times reports. Keona Semone Stephens is now facing four counts of theft from a person 65 years of age or older and one count of grand theft. According to the Times, she was only on the job for about three weeks.

Originally founded in December 2006 as an independent grassroots publication dedicated to coverage of health issues in Florida, Health News Florida was acquired by WUSF Public Media in September 2012.