(Davis County Jail)
FARMINGTON — A former nurse’s assistant in Davis County has been sentenced after admitting he abused two Alzheimer’s patients in his care.
One patient’s abuse was caught on camera.
Jason Knox was originally given two sentences of one to 15 years for aggravated abuse of vulnerable adults, and those sentences were to run concurrently. However, the judge immediately suspended that sentence and gave Knox one year in jail and four years probation. Judge Michael Edwards says if Knox breaks that probation in any way, he will finish the rest of his prison sentence.
Family members of the victims say they’re pleased, overall, with the decision.
“I’m as happy as I could be with it. I worry for these people [seniors] and their safety,” says Kellie Bingham, the daughter of one of the victims.
Bingham says she grew suspicious that something was happening after hearing other patients say they were afraid to go to sleep. She adds that her father has dementia and isn’t able to speak, but he still tried to tell her that something was happening.
She says, “I didn’t realize what he was doing. I kept trying to feed him dessert but he grabbed my hand and shoved it into his shirt so that I looked and saw the bruise on his skin and on his chest.”
After that, Bingham set up a camera inside her father’s room. That camera caught Knox driving his elbow into her father’s torso.
Bingham says she was stunned to see the abuse happening.
“We’re not a family that just dropped him off and said, ‘We hope you fare well.’ We were there every day. I knew every CNA’s name and I knew every resident there, and it still happened,” she says.
While speaking with investigators, Knox reportedly admitted to abusing an 89-year-old woman by throwing her on her bed and elbowing her, also.
Knox was told by the judge that he will stay away from the Chancellor Gardens Assisted Living Center in Clearfield, and that he will never again be allowed to get his CNA license.
Bingham is pleased that Knox won’t be able to hurt more patients, however, she says, “There are more people like him out there and catching them is tricky.”
Knox told the judge he is embarrassed by his actions, and that the abuse seen in the video does not reflect him as a person.
