PEABODY, MASS. (WHDH) - A 27-year-old home health aide accused of abusing a 90-year-old woman pleaded not guilty to charges of assault and battery on a person over 60 and witness intimidation Friday in Peabody District Court.
Prosecutors allege Sophonie Fidele slapped a phone out of the woman’s hand and ripped off a medical alert bracelet when the patient confronted the defendant about being “under the influence of something” and threatened to report her, according to Carrie Kimball-Monahan, a spokeswoman for the Essex County District Attorney’s Office.
Emergency crews responding to the victim’s Lynnfield Street home for a 911 call found the woman screaming for help. A search of the home uncovered several empty bottles of liquor in Fidele’s room and a commode chair that had not been emptied for several days, officials said.
Investigators also determined that Fidele is an employee of Family Care Plus of Connecticut and that she had been placed as a live-in aid at the address.
Fidele was released after posting $500 bail. A judge ordered her to home confinement with a GPS monitoring device, to remain alcohol-free with screens, to stay away from and have no contact with the victim, and not to work with the elderly population.
She is due back in court in February for a pre-trial hearing.
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