By STEPHEN BARTLETT
PLATTSBURGH — A former nurse’s aide from Clinton County Nursing Home has been charged with taking a sexually explicit photo of a 49-year-old male patient with a traumatic brain injury.
The New York State Attorney General’s Office said Shane Spooner, 33, of Standish Street used a cell phone to take a “inappropriate photo of a nursing-home patient under his care.”
Plattsburgh City Police charged Spooner this morning with second-degree unlawful surveillance and first-degree dissemination of an unlawful surveillance image, both felonies.
Spooner, who is no longer employed at the nursing home, was arraigned before Judge Penelope Clute this morning. A pair of agents from the Attorney General’s Office escorted the husband and father of two, who walked with his head down, into City Court.
Clute sent Spooner to Clinton County Jail on $1,000 cash bail, $2,000 bond.
She said Spooner has at least three prior misdemeanor convictions in City Court, including aggravated unlicensed operation.
The complaint alleges that on March 28 Spooner used his cell phone to take a picture of the 49-year-old’s genitals and sent a text message with this photograph to a female employee, who was not working at the time.
Spooner asked his co-worker to forward the picture to another friend, but instead she reported the incident to her supervisors.
Spooner allegedly admitted his conduct to an investigator from the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and conceded that he took and sent the photograph for his own amusement.
Spooner, who has known about the investigation into his actions for a month, surrendered to law enforcement Thursday.
“These charges are a disgusting example of abuse within the walls of a New York nursing home,” Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said in a news release.
“The employee allegedly violated the privacy rights of his patient, the laws of New York state and the rules of common decency.
“This office has zero tolerance for nurses and health-care providers who disregard the law, and our investigation into this kind of misconduct at New York nursing homes continues.”
If convicted, Spooner, who works at CVPH Medical Center part time as a dishwasher, faces a maximum of one and a third to four years in prison.
He is scheduled to reappear in court at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 18.
The case is being prosecuted by Special Assistant Attorney General Richard Harrow, director of the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit’s Albany regional office. Special Investigators Michael Connelly and Richard Ellison conducted the investigation.
Cuomo’s office has made protecting elderly New Yorkers one of his priorities.
Other nursing home cases brought this year include the arrest of a Troy man for the sexual abuse of a helpless resident of Northwoods Rehabilitation Center, the conviction of a Tupper Lake man who endangered an 88-year-old disabled resident of Adirondack Medical Center/Mercy Nursing Home in Tupper Lake and the conviction of a Rochester woman for kicking an 88-year-old man while he lay in bed in Kirkhaven Nursing Home.
Additionally, Cuomo’s Office has ongoing hidden-camera investigations at nursing homes across the state.
So far, the crackdown of health-care providers who abuse those in their care has led to the arrest or conviction of more than 75 nursing-home employees.
E-mail Stephen Bartlett at:
sbartlett@pressrepublican.com
