Thread: Illegal Operating Assisted Living Home Assaults Woman, Flees

http://pasco.tbo.com/pasco/MGBJLLYBWHE.html

Assisted Living Faces Challenge

By CHRISTIAN M. WADE cwade@tampatrib.com

Published: Jan 1, 2006

NEW PORT RICHEY - Sometime in the past two years, Emanuel Hernandez and a friend jumped off a cruise ship as it docked in Tampa Bay and swam to shore.

A few months later, the 41-year-old Filipino national resurfaced in Pasco County, running an assisted living facility in New Port Richey.

Canterbury Manor, on 5714 Monroe St., was home for a half-dozen mentally disabled persons who were being cared for by Hernandez and his fiancee, Teresa Dela-Cruz.

The facility has been shut down, and Hernandez is wanted by police, accused of sexually abusing a 25-year-old woman under his care over a three month-period.

In May, city police detectives began investigating the allegations after getting a formal complaint from the state Department of Children & Families.

DNA tests confirmed the woman was sexually assaulted, and city police issued a warrant for Hernandez's arrest. Meanwhile, immigration officials had begun the process for deporting him.

With authorities closing in, Hernandez boarded a plane Dec. 9 from Tampa to New York City. From there he flew to Seoul, South Korea, en route to the Philippines, police said.

While Hernandez remains at large, the story of how an illegal immigrant was able to operate a home for the disabled highlights the nationwide problem with small, unregulated assisted-living facilities.

ALFs provide supervised care for people who can't handle the tasks of daily living but don't require the full-time medical care at nursing homes.

ALFs include everything from converted private homes serving a handful of people to high-rises and other complexes housing hundreds.

"Most of the assisted living facilities in Florida are small operations, and the requirements to operate them are few," said Ed Towey, a spokesman for the Florida Health Care Association. "They're a lot less expensive than larger facilities."

Over the past decade, ALFs have proliferated even as state and federal regulators have struggled to establish licensing requirements for them, he said.

In Florida, the operations are completely legal because licenses are not required for certain types of small group homes that might advertise themselves as assisted living.

In some cases, owners who otherwise would be required to have licenses simply skirt the rules and operate illegally.

While the large-scale operations are licensed and supervised by the state Agency for Health Care Administration, smaller group homes operate under the radar of regulators.

And unlike nursing homes, ALFs are paid for almost entirely by private funds, so typically they do not need to meet federal and state regulations.

This apparent lack of oversight among facilities that increasingly care for some of state's most vulnerable citizens has caused concern among health care officials.

"It's always wise for family members to make sure that they place their loved ones in certified facilities," said Marc Yacht, executive director of the Pasco County Health Department. "There are a lot of private facilities that operate illegally."

State officials were at a loss to explain how Hernandez, who had entered this country illegally, was able to open and operate an ALF at his home. They also couldn't say whether the facility was required to have a state license.

There are no business signs outside the small two-story Monroe Street house, and the operation was not licensed as an ALF, state records say.

City and county records indicate that Canterbury Manor had an occupational license registered to Hernandez, valid for a year. The house belongs to his mother, Juanita Murray, who lives in Palm Harbor and works at another ALF.

A spokeswoman from the Department of Children & Families declined to comment on the criminal investigation of the facility, citing state and federal privacy laws.

During the investigation of the sexual assault allegations, detectives uncovered a network of Filipino immigrants who might have helped Hernandez enter the country, set up the ALF and, ultimately, escape prosecution.

"They have a tight network and communicate with each other," said Detective Randy Murphy of the New Port Richey Police Department.

Murphy said he interviewed family members and learned Hernandez has a wife in the Philippines and lived in the United States illegally for several years.

He was engaged to marry Dela-Cruz, also Filipino, and they have a 9-year-old son and a newborn, the detective said.

"His family still believes he's innocent," said Murphy, the lead investigator on the case. "So why did he run?"

According to court documents, the sexual assaults happened between last February and April. Hernandez later told the 25-year-old woman she had to leave the facility; she took with her bed sheets that police said tested positive for his DNA.

Dela-Cruz has not been charged in the case, and there have been no other sexual allegations filed against Hernandez, Murphy said.

The ALF closed Dec. 16, and the other disabled residents there have been returned to the care of their families.

Meanwhile, city police have been working with state and federal authorities to seek Hernandez's extradition from the Philippines to face three counts of sexual battery on a disabled adult and two counts of lewd and lascivious battery.

"If he comes back to the country, he'll be arrested," Murphy said.

Posters Note: I've changed the actual headline of this story (highlighted in bold) to the real headline. The media can't own up to what's happening here, even when they write stories about it.

That is so heartbreaking for that poor woman. Don't you know this happens a LOT??

A spokeswoman from the Department of Children & Families declined to comment on the criminal investigation of the facility, citing state and federal privacy laws.

Another one of Jeb Bush's screwed up agencies. This Department has not done ANYTHING RIGHT since Jeb became Governor. Every time you hear of them losing another child or an incident like the one in the article, old Jeb gets out there and talks about how they are gonna straighten that agency out and it NEVER HAPPENS. I know a LOT of those agencies across the country are overwhelmed and understaffed but the one in FLORIDA just seems particularly AWFUL.

And, Jeb doesn't think incidences like this would follow him if he decided to RUN FOR PRESIDUNCE???

Originally Posted by Bootsie

That is so heartbreaking for that poor woman. Don't you know this happens a LOT??

Another one of Jeb Bush's screwed up agencies.

And, Jeb doesn't think incidences like this would follow him if he decided to RUN FOR PRESIDUNCE???

I got into big arguments over at FR with people that were big Jeb for Pres supporters. Even if you ignore his incompetence as Governor and his incompetence as a parent, why would people want a dynasty form of government?

Who would be next? That America hating George Prescott Bush, who denouced the Minutemen down in Mexico last year?

Not if I can help it.

Oh-- did HE denounce the Minutemen too?? I never hear much from that brother. Maybe they would skip a generation and put up Jeb's drug-addicted DAUGHTER???

IMHO--that whole FAMILY has done enough damage to this country. We don't need ANY MORE BUSH relations occupying the "THRONE"!

He's not a brother, he's one of Jeb's sons.

The problem with these inbred families is that they keep using each other's names, making it difficult to keep track of who's who.

He's one of the three "little brown ones", as his grandfather George H. W. Bush said when introducing him and his siblings to then President Reagan.

OH NO!! And, Bush the ELDER actually called his GRANDCHILDREN BROWN ONES??!! THAT is a HOOT! Well, DUBYA does have a brother with PRESCOTT in HIS name, doesn't he??? I guess I had better bone up on America's ROYAL FAMILY TO BE, HUH??!! JUST KIDDING, JUST KIDDING!! I hope I will NEVER have to hear that name AGAIN after 2006 when we IMPEACH the current BUSHBABY.