Ex-nursing-home worker gets 4 years house arrest, loses license
A nursing home worker who videoed and “egged on” the abuse of a mentally-deficient elderly patient was ordered to serve four years on house arrest and will lose her nursing license for 10 years.
Brenda Bolden, 70, of Laurel stood before Judge Dal Williamson in Jones County Circuit Court as he described videos that showed Bolden’s conduct was “incriminating and despicable.” She pleaded guilty to felonious abuse of a vulnerable adult.
“It was a bad call … I’m sorry that it happened,” Bolden said.
She was ordered to serve four years on house arrest under the Mississippi Department of Corrections and three years of post-release supervision under MDOC, to participate in the court’s community service program and to pay $1,927.50 in court fees and fines, which includes a $500 investigative fee to the state Attorney General’s Office.
Brantley Walton of the AG’s office prosecuted the case, which was investigated by Seth Crabtree — a former investigator for the Laurel Police Department who is now with the AG’s office — after an abuse complaint was filed in February, Walton told the court.
Crabtree’s investigation led to the arrest of Bolden and 56-year-old Adron Lawrence for abuse/exploitation of a vulnerable adult. Lawrence has not been to court on the charges yet. The name of the facility they were working at was not mentioned in the court proceeding, but both were employees of Cottonwood Manor on Old Amy Road at the time, according to numerous reports. The abuse videos were recorded between June and December 2023, according to court records. The assisted-living facility is now under new ownership.
Walton and Bolden’s attorney Jeannene Pacific had worked out a plea agreement for Bolden to serve two years on house arrest, but the judge wouldn’t accept that when it was presented to him on Tuesday, when court was in session in the Ellisville courthouse. Williamson said he would have to view the videos in evidence so he could decide if that was an acceptable sentence.
“It’s concerning because she will be off house arrest in the blink of an eye given how MDOC does things,” he said.
The next afternoon, with court back in session in Laurel, the judge said he had watched the videos and would not accept less than four years on house arrest. He took notes of what he witnessed in the dozens of videos that were recorded by Bolden with an iPad. They showed abuse of “an elderly patient with obvious mental deficiencies,” Williamson said.
Judge Dal Williamson
He shook his head as he described how the patient fell on the floor while using a walker, and “instead of helping, (Bolden) kept filming as she was lying on the floor.” There appeared to be duct tape on the patient after she turned over in a chair and Bolden called her “a hollering-ass heifer,” Williamson said. “The worst part was when (Bolden) seemed to egg on a fight between the patient and (Lawrence), trying to get (the patient) to swing back.”
They pulled the patient’s shirt over her head, and Bolden “disgustingly kept laughing the whole time,” Williamson said. He described how they took a bow out of the patient’s hair and put it in Lawrence’s hair, “to intimidate and taunt” the patient. The workers “pulled a diaper off through the front of her pants,” as the patient cried, he said.
“It’s pretty painful watching these videos,” Williamson told Bolden. “I understand there are challenges working with handicapped individuals … but this was awful. (The patient) didn’t deserve to be treated this way.”
When he said he wouldn’t accept less than four years on house arrest, Pacific said, “We’re agreeable with that. She lost her nursing license, and we see that as permanent based on her age and circumstances.”
Walton told the court there were almost 200 videos on the iPad and some showed Bolden “pushing and pulling a resident of the facility … failing to provide aid and encouraging the behavior of another individual participating in abuse.”
The victim has since passed away, but her death was not believed to be related to the abuse, Walton said.
The Leader-Call reported the abuse allegations in March, but a spokeswoman for the AG’s office wouldn’t confirm that there was an investigation, citing agency policy. New owner and CEO Eleanor Collins of GSS Healthcare LLC said that all of the abuse incidents happened under the previous ownership, adding that she was cooperating with the AG’s investigation.