A 50-year-old woman who works at a nursing home in Wyoming is accused of assaulting one of her patients, allegedly using a silk scarf to tie a patient’s head to her bed to keep the victim from moving.
Julie Ann Cross is currently charged with one felony crime of deliberate abuse, neglect, or abandonment of a vulnerable adult and one misdemeanor count of false imprisonment.
Cross appeared in Natrona County District Court on Thursday and pled not guilty to the allegations, Cowboy State Daily reported. County District Court Judge Catherine Wilking ordered her release on a $5,000 personal recognizance bail.
The assault allegedly occurred at a Nowcap residential facility in the 300 block of North Walsh Avenue early on July 14. An officer from the Casper Police Department responded to a 911 call after one of Cross’ coworkers reported coming in for the morning shift and finding a 53-year-old woman in bed with her head tied down to prevent her from getting up or moving her head throughout the evening.
The employee was a morning shift manager who realized what was going on when he tried to move the resident over in bed and noticed the blue scarf connecting her hair to the bed, tying her down, Oil City News stated. Another employee photographed the purported knot Cross used, which they said took at least five minutes to untangle.
While the two employees were attempting to assist the resident, Cross, who had been the sole caregiver for the individual during the night shift that evening, allegedly entered the room and attempted to push one of her coworkers before attempting to seize the blue scarf.
When one of her coworkers asked why she had tied the person’s head down, Cross allegedly said, “It was to keep [the resident] from moving,” according to Cowboy State Daily, citing a probable cause document. She also claimed said the resident’s hair was “matted and smelt.”
Before leaving the room, Cross allegedly inquired whether the resident’s hair had become “tangled again on her bed,” stating it had been “getting tangled throughout the night.”
In an interview with police the next day, Cross allegedly stated she merely used the scarf to tie the resident’s hair into a ponytail, but when she returned to check on the patient, the scarf had “fallen and wrapped around the bed.”
“Morning staff came in and she told them about the scarf and how it had gotten wrapped around the corner of the bed,” Cross told police, according to the affidavit. “She believes that (the patient) was tossing her head side-to-side and the scarf got wrapped around again.”
