A Longview nursing home employee has been arrested after telling police she tied a resident to a bed for five hours.
Simone Monique Barnes, 34, was charged with unlawful restraint: expose to serious bodily injury after she tied a resident at Whispering Pines Lodge to her bed March 6.
She was held Thursday in the Gregg County Jail on $40,000 bond.
Barnes used black leggings to tie the resident to the bed, which “recklessly exposed the victim to a substantial risk of serious bodily injury,” according to Stan Head, a sergeant with the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the Texas Attorney General’s Office who wrote the affidavit for Barnes’ arrest.
In an interview with Longview police Officer Fernando Esquivel, Barnes admitted to restraining the female victim after the woman attempted to get out of bed around 3:15 a.m. March 6, Head wrote in the affidavit.
The female victim is 55 years old and has schizoaffective disorder, anxiety disorder, a history of falling and Huntington’s disease, a neurological disorder that ultimately causes issues moving as brain cells break down and die.
Barnes, who was hired at Whispering Pines in 2015, was in the victim’s room around 3:15 a.m. when another patient down the hallway began yelling, Head wrote. The victim heard the yelling, woke up and attempted to get out of bed, which she must have help to do. Barnes said she took the victim’s leggings and tied them to her legs and the mattress straps to keep the woman from getting out of bed and falling. Barnes then went to take care of the other patient.
Barnes said the other patient “had soiled himself and needed extensive attention,” Head wrote. Barnes finished attending to the patient after her shift’s normal ending time at 6 a.m. She then went home, having forgotten that the woman was still restrained to the bed, Head wrote in the affidavit.
A certified nursing assistant at the facility found the woman at 8:15 a.m. March 6, Head wrote in the affidavit. The employee immediately notified Whispering Pines’ assistant director of nursing, who photographed the restraint before removing it. The photograph is being used as evidence in the case. The facility administrator called Barnes and told her to return to the facility. Esquivel responded to the facility and interviewed Barnes.
A warrant was issued for Barnes’ arrest March 18, and she was arrested and booked into the Gregg County Jail on March 20.
Calls to Whispering Pines’ corporate headquarters, Creative Solutions in Healthcare, had not been returned as of Thursday. Whispering Pines administrator Melba Killyon declined to comment.
Barnes also was booked into jail on three charges from Nacogdoches County: bail jumping and failure to appear, unlawful carrying of a weapon and possession of marijuana.
