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Two at Bucks County senior care center fired over alleged mistreatment

Two former workers at a lower Bucks County senior living facility were charged Tuesday with mistreating an 83-year-old Alzheimer's patient, and the home's license has been revoked.

Two former workers at a lower Bucks County senior living facility were charged Tuesday with mistreating an 83-year-old Alzheimer's patient, and the home's license has been revoked.

Videos show Regina Battles, 20, and Irene Rodriguez, 22, both of Philadelphia, badly handling the woman in her room in the Arbors at Buck Run in October and November, authorities said.

"They show her being handled very roughly and being tossed on the bed," Assistant District Attorney Michelle Laucella said. "They show her crying."

The videos were taken with cameras put in the room by the woman's relatives, who suspected possible mistreatment at the Lower Southampton Township facility, Laucella said. The woman was a resident from last December until mid-November, when she was taken to Abington Memorial Hospital for treatment of injuries, Laucella said.

"There were scabs and bleeding from her feet," she said. The woman has since been placed in another nursing home.

Battles and Rodriguez were fired Nov. 28, said Mark Miller, senior vice president of operations at the Buck Road facility. "We have a zero-tolerance policy," he said. "If the charges prove to be untrue, the workers can be rehired."

The state Department of Public Welfare revoked the Arbors' license Friday, saying the facility had hired Battles and Rodriguez before completing the required background checks on them.

The Arbors will appeal the license revocation in the next few days, and can continue operating during the appeals process, Miller said. The facility has 60 residents.

"This was an isolated incident," he said.

Rodriguez and Battles were charged with neglect of a care-dependent person, a first-degree misdemeanor that carries a possible five-year jail sentence. They also were charged with reckless endangerment, simple assault, and harassment. They were arraigned before District Justice John Waltman and sent to the Bucks County prison with bail set at $100,000 each.