California Nursing Home Owner Faces Trial
Marlene Z. Robertson, current owner of Cloverleaf Healthcare Center in Hemet, California, faces trial on November 6, 2008 on charges of attempted bribery. She was charged in 2006 by the California State Attorney General.
Robertson and her corporate administrator, Isidra Agulto, were arrested and charged with five counts of bribery and one count of conspiracy to commit bribery. Robertson's boyfriend, Josemar Mercado, was arrested and charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bribery. At the time of her arrest, Robertson owned six nursing homes, including Huntington Healthcare Center in Los Angeles, Casa Maria Healthcare Center in Fontana, and Cloverleaf Healthcare Center in Hemet. She offered money and gifts to inspectors in exchange for information concerning upcoming inspections and investigations of her facilities.
In September 2005, Robertson's Huntington Healthcare Center was cited with 40 health and safety violations. Residents were wearing soiled clothes, animal droppings were found near food in the dining area, and a patient was seen with an open head wound.
In February 2006, problems were so bad at Robertson's Casa Maria Healthcare Center that the Public Health Department appointed a temporary manager to run the facility after an inspection revealed nearly 50 health and safety problems. The facility was closed three months later.
Recently, the owners of Hemet Valley Healthcare Center in Hemet have decided to close that facility. There are eight facilities in close proximity where the residents of that facility could transfer. The problem? One of those facilities is Robertson's Cloverleaf Healthcare Center in Hemet. Pat McGinnis, the executive director of California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, has repeatedly complained to the California State Public Health Department about Robertson and her operation of nursing homes and says that "there are absolutely no consequences for abuse of residents. Patients had better be very, very careful".
