GRAYSON — Nine former employees of a Carter County group home for mentally handicapped adults have been charged in an ongoing police investigation of residents being abused at the facility, reports the (Ashland) Daily Independent.

The probe was launched in the wake of a resident’s death in October. However, Grayson Police Sgt. Travis Steele, who is heading up the investigation, said the charges against the nine stemmed from different incidents, the newspaper reports.

Steele said Friday he did not have the names and ages of those charged at his immediate disposal. However, he identified them as Robert Thompson, Regina Stevens, Nicholas Adams, Earl Pelfrey, Glada Miller, Michael Yates, Todd Gribbin, Carl King and Ira Griffith.

All nine were charged with abuse or neglect of an adult by a caretaker, a felony, Steele said. The incidents that led to the charges occurred between April and November of last year, he said.

None of the nine still work at the group home. All were fired from their jobs when it became known they were being targeted by investigators, Steele said.

Steele said he had one more warrant yet to serve in connection with the probe, on which the Grayson Police Department is being assisted by the Kentucky Bureau of Investigation, reports the newspaper.

He also said he had just received the final medical examiner’s report on Michael Price, a 25-year-old man with cerebral palsy who died on Oct. 14 while in the care of Community Presence.

With that report in hand, Steele said he would be presenting evidence against the man accused in Price’s death to a Carter County grand jury this week, reports the Daily Independent.

Copyright: The (Ashland) Daily Independent
www.dailyindependent.com