Caregiver fired for behavior toward resident with dementia

A former nursing home employee faces a felony charge for dancing provocatively for a resident with dementia.

Brittany L. Fultz, 26, was “playing around.” “He initiated it. He was playing around. I thought it was funny to make him laugh,” she says to local Fox affiliate Fox 8. “When people say he didn’t want it, how do you know? You don’t know.”

Sandusky, Ohio, police detective Anthony Bath disagrees. “He did not want this going on,” he said to the Sandusky Register. The man’s cognizance is unknown.

A second former employee used a cellphone to record Fultz, who could be seen saying obscenities, straddling his legs, exposing her buttocks and grabbing her breast while telling the 100-year-old male resident, “I’m a girl. You know what that means.”

The video was recorded in early December and the videographer approached a supervisor at The Commons of Providence Feb. 12, who immediately reported the incident to police and the Ohio Department of Health, according to records filed with Sandusky Municipal Court.  

“We are cooperating with local police who are handling the investigation and we will not comment further about the ongoing investigation,” said executive director Staci Lehmkuhl in a statement.

“She did not break the law,” Fultz’s attorney Geoffrey Oglesby said to Fox 8. “It’s a little flirty, that’s what it is and that’s what happened. And the police, in my opinion, and the nursing home are taking it way, way, way out of context.”

Fultz was charged with gross sexual imposition, a fourth degree felony. She pleaded not guilty.

“I never touched him,” Fultz said. “I was just joking around.”

Nicole Stempak

Nicole was Senior Editor at I Advance Senior Care and Long Term Living Magazine 2015-2017. She has a Journalism degree from Kent State University and is finalizing a master’s degree in Information Architecture and Management. She has extensive studies in the digital user experience and in branding online media. She has worked as an editor and writer for various B2B publications, including Business Finance.