BRONX D.A.: NURSING HOME AIDE INDICTED IN ELDERY MAN’S IMPALEMENT DEATH

NURSING HOME AIDE CHARGED WITH HOMICIDE

IN ELDERLY MAN’S DEATH

Cherrylee Young Accused of Punching 77 Year-Old Man in Her Care

(Bronx, NY – January 13, 2015) – Bronx County District Attorney Robert Johnson announces the Supreme Court indictment of 41-year-old nursing home aide CHERRYLEE YOUNG in the death of an elderly man who was in her care.

YOUNG was arraigned before Justice George Villegas at the Bronx Hall of Justice, 265 East 161^st Street, and pled not guilty to the charges of:

Criminally Negligent Homicide (Class E Felony)

Assault in the 2^nd Degree (D Felony)

Endangering the Welfare of an Incompetent Person (D Felony)

Endangering the Welfare of a Vulnerable Elderly Person in the 1^st Degree (D Felony, 2 Counts)

It is alleged that, while she was employed at the University Nursing Home on 2505 Grand Avenue in the Bronx, CHERRYLEE YOUNG was assigned to care for patients including 77 year-old FRANK MERCADO, who was suffering from dementia.  Although she had been instructed that, if dementia patients become combative no physical action is to be taken, she allegedly repeatedly punched the man, causing him to fall to the floor.  In the fracas on December 8, 2014, a table broke.  The medical examiner determined that a protruding piece of metal from the broken table impaled MERCADO in the rectum as he fell, causing internal bleeding.

MERCADO was taken to an area hospital, where he died.

If convicted of the charges brought, CHERRYLEE YOUNG faces a prison term of up to seven years.

The case against YOUNG is being prosecuted by the Bronx D.A.’s Senior Assistant District Attorney Nancy Borko.  The case has been adjourned until April 10, 2015.

The charges contained in the indictment are allegations; the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.