A former employee of a state-run group home for mentally disabled people was banned today from working in the health care industry after pleading guilty to a charge of negligent cruelty to a person. Gerald Guay,was sentenced by Judge Gary White in Superior Court in Hartford to a five-year suspended prison sentence, three years' probation and 100 hours of community service. White also ordered that Guay refrain from working in hospitals, nursing homes and other care-giving businesses.

"You can't work in health care at all," White said.

According to the Bloomfield Police Department's arrest warrant application, Guay tormented and tortured Christopher Stockton, a 38-year-old resident of the Brown Street home who has severe autism and other developmental disabilities, including an inability to speak.

According to the affidavit, Stockton's mother, Alice Stockton, first brought her suspicions to the attention of the state Department of Developmental Disabilities more than two years ago, when her son began to suffer seizures that coincided with the beginning of Guay's employment in the home.

Alice Stockton was told there was nothing that could be done because there was no proof of abuse, according to the affidavit. Eventually she began to periodically take an audio recording what was happening in the room that her son had to himself, according to the affidavit.

On Dec. 18, 2007, Alice Stockton activated the recorder in his room, but did not immediately listen to what transpired. Three days later, she picked up her son and brought him to her home in Windsor for the weekend. When she tried to brush his teeth, she noticed a laceration and a hematoma on the inside of his mouth, she told police.

On Dec. 23, Alice Stockton listened to the recording and heard Guay entering her son's room shortly after she left. In the recording, Guay is heard swearing at Christopher Stockton and threatening to "bash his head in" several times, according to the affidavit.

On the recording Guay can be heard, in an expletive-filled tirade, threatening to beat Christopher Stockton and make him eat the toilet if he doesn't stop flushing it, according to the affidavit.

Why didn't authorities act quicker in this situation?  The fact that Ms. Stockton brought evidence of her disabled sons injuries to authorities attention and without any results is sickening.  These prosecutors should look for another job if they put the burden of obtaining evidence in the hands of a disabled person's mother.

Read more about this incident here.

Related:

Nursing Home Injury Laws: Connecticut