By Mike Sever
Record-Courier staff writer
An 82-year-old man charged with the 2007 sexual assault of a resident of the Portage County nursing home has been found incompetent to stand trial.
A hearing has been set for 2:30 p.m. Monday to determine what to do next in regard to Ben W. Detweiler of Randolph.
According to court records, a court-ordered competency review determined that Detweiler is not competent and has no chance of being restored to competency within a year. Both the prosecution and defense have agreed with the results of the review.
Detweiler was indicted last November on one count of rape, a first-degree felony, and two counts of gross sexual imposition, fourth-degree felonies, for incidents that allegedly occurred in March and August 2007 at The Woodlands at Robinson, the county's nursing home in Ravenna.
Detweiler allegedly assaulted the victim while he was in the nursing home to visit another resident.
The alleged victim, who has since died, was physically incapacitated and unable to resist the alleged assaults.
She and her son filed a civil suit against The Woodlands, Detweiler and others. That suit is still pending.
The allegations also were investigated by the Ohio Department of Health, which determined the facility was deficient for failing to keep the resident safe and for failing to promptly report an alleged abuse incident as required.
As a result of the criminal allegations and a subsequent investigation, Portage County commissioners replaced the home's administrator with a management firm, and the director of nursing was suspended and later resigned.
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2 Total Comments
2.
Posted by mxtr1957 August 9, 2008
As I have said in the beginning of this. There was abuse and neglect going on way before this tragic event. Lynn Leslie, Charles Keiper were all aware or it. A year prior to this a prior
violation and failure to reprt the incident was
kept hush, hush. The administrator Gary Borelli and Diane Goodwin both aware did not report the
violations. Lynn and Charles continued to keep the administrator and DON in office and harass someone who cared about the residents. An individual who stood up and called state, and any organizinzations that they could think of. In return they were harassed and blamed for things they did not do. This individual got to a point that they didn't want to go to work and be harassed anymore. Alot of other employees saw their imcompetence but failed to do anything. It still makes me sick. THey individual going around in their wheelchair, caught feeling up female residents, was caught many a time with his hands up and down another female residents pants. A resident that did not move ended up with a broken foot and was found day after day sitting in urine and urine under her chair. All Diane and Gary were aware of. It makes me sick.
Our tax dollars paid to people that should have been gone long ago. Then the commissioners put them on leave with pay and a buyout. Portage County residents wake up, we need to get rid of
the rest of the people involved that were aware on infractions and let them go on. Remember next time you go to vote and they ask you to approve
money so they can build a shiney new building. If
they would have done something sooner our tax payers dollars would not have been wasted. None of this would have happened if people would have listened and put more safety measures in force.
Their way of handling the issues at Woodlands was to spread lies and encourage intimidation and harassment of those that took a stand. Lynn Leslie had is the past had calls from many employees the complained that Diane was harassing them. I don't know how you can sleep at night. I can. Remember Portage County residents when you go to vote we need new blood and someone who will be proactive in the benefit of Portage County residents. Also the individual that was attacked by Mr. Detweiler, if you need a witness
ask the Record Courier and I would be more then happy to be a witness and I have plenty of tapes
that recorded conversations with me telling Gary, Diane, Lynn about what was going on at Woodlands
prior to this tragic event. And other events that they chose to overlook and try to make me look bad. People need to learn from their action or inactions.
1.
Posted by DoWhatsRight August 9, 2008
OK, so he is incompetent. What does that mean? Will he still be able to roam around and seek a chance to do it again, or will he be isolated? Tough question. On one hand you have a person that has mental problems, are we to take his freedom away or are we suppose to allow all the other people to risk being attacked? In this case I think the security and safety of the many demand that this man be isolated.
Why did Woodlands not know this man had these kind of problems? Who dropped the ball ? They are the ones that should be sued, not the taxpayer.
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