CREVE COEUR, Mo. - A worker shoved an 84-year-old man at his Creve Coeur nursing home, and it was caught on camera.
The video shows the man entering the room with a walker. He opens a drawer and that is when the worker, 31-year-old Ernestine Cobbins, walks in, closes the drawer and shoves him.
"It was a forceful push that caused the victim to fall to the ground," Creve Coeur Police Detective Tom Exline said. "I'm not sure what her thought process was when it happened. Other than the fall, there were no other injuries, no bleeding, or any other trauma."
Exline said Cobbins initially lied about the incident, saying it was a fall. However, the video shows she shoved the man.
Cobbins was charged with elder abuse in the third degree. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to probation and community service.
The Dolan Residential Care Center is located at the 12000 block of Conway Road. Nobody would speak about the incident on camera, but the company issued the following statement:
"The associate in question was immediately terminated and the resident is doing very well and suffers no ill effects from the incident. Consequently the video we supplied to the State and the Creve Coeur Police Department helped them in their case against Miss Cobbins and assured that she never again will have the ability to work with the elderly or in the long term care industry."
The statement can be read in full here.
