A 60-year-old man with developmental disabilities and limited verbal skills was removed from his sister’s home after officers were called in to investigate his injuries.
Workers at Easter Seals, which provided services to the man, noticed that he’d arrived at their facility on Monday morning with a black eye. They noted he was not injured when he left on Friday.
They said his sister had contacted them earlier that morning to say that he hit his eye on the door of one of their transport vehicles on Friday. However, workers said no such incident happened and that the man was under constant supervision while at the facility.
The man’s caseworker decided to perform an emergency relocation from his sister’s house while they investigated the incident. Officers headed to the home while the woman packed up the brother’s belongings.
She told officers her brother was difficult to care for and sometimes got physical with her, and she had to respond. She told officers he’d acted out on Saturday, dumping a bag of potato chips on the floor and refusing to clean them up. When she attempted to clean up, he became agitated.
When an officer asked if the brother’s injury might have happened during the potato chip incident, she said it was possible. She said that he was holding his arm up and biting his finger, so she hit him on the arm with the vacuum extension to get him to stop. She said it was possible the extension might have accidentally hit his eye.
Officers took information for a report and said they would forward it to the Lawrence County Prosecutor’s Office for review.
