Jail sentence for caregiver caught on hidden camera struggling with dementia patient

Six months after a Folsom caregiver was caught on hidden camera appearing to abuse an 89-year-old dementia patient, the worker pleaded no contest Wednesday to a single misdemeanor count of elder abuse and was sentenced to 90 days in jail.

Sharan Kaur pleaded no contest in Sacramento Superior Court and was ordered by Judge Michael Sweet to surrender to jail on April 29 for what will amount to 45 days in custody and a year of informal probation.

“It’s pretty reprehensible conduct,” Sweet said of what he saw on the video from the hidden camera. “It’s very disturbing.”

Kaur was arrested in September after the victim’s granddaughter, Rebecca Gyorgy, hid a camera inside a DVD player in her grandmother’s room at the Folsom branch of the Brookdale Senior Living facility on Harrington Way.

Gyorgy then showed the video to the Sacramento-based Foundation Aiding the Elderly, which filed a complaint with state regulators saying two caregivers were seen on the video as they “slapped her, pulled her hair, tormented her and laughed at her.”

“Earlier that morning around 7 a.m., it is also on the video that (the woman) fell and laid on the floor in her room for almost an hour before someone came and picked her up,” according to the complaint filed by FATE President Carole Herman. “Someone was seen placing a covering over her as she was on the floor naked.”

Brookdale later issued a statement saying they take the allegations seriously and adding that “the individuals involved are no longer with the company.”

Kaur was the only one charged in the incident, with prosecutors originally filing a count of felony elder abuse but later dropping it after concluding they could not prove the incident resulted in great bodily harm or death.

The victim was 89-year-old Barbara Collier, who was placed into the facility after being evacuated from her Pollock Pines home during the Caldor Fire.

The Bee has not previously identified Collier, but she since has died and Gyorgy said in court that her grandmother was combative with her and other relatives after the incident and never walked again.

“And now that’s the horrible memory I am left with,” Gyorgy told the judge through tears as Kaur sat at the defense table. “It haunts me every day knowing I couldn’t protect her from abuse...

“We trusted those people and paid a substantial amount of money for her care. Who knows how many other people she has done this to?”

Sweet told Gyorgy after she spoke that she was a “good granddaughter” for taking such steps to make sure she was being cared for properly.

“Good for you that you put that camera in there,” the judge said. “Don’t know if it’s legal...”

Joseph Hougnon, Kaur’s defense attorney, argued that the video did not show the true nature of what happened Sept. 2, 2021, as Kaur and Kandice Taylor, Collier’s primary caregiver, tried to get a combative Collier into bed.

He maintained that Collier was not injured during the incident, which he conceded was “wrong” but “isolated.”

Hougnon said Kaur had no history of complaints and no criminal record, and that news accounts of the video first obtained by The Sacramento Bee had generated national attention that will preclude her from ever working in a care facility again.

“Obviously, she’s a pariah now,” he said. “She can’t work, she can’t do this anymore...

“She was fired and there’s a huge firestorm on social media.”

Kaur could have faced a 180-day sentence, and the prosecution asked for 120 days, but Gyorgy said after court that she was satisfied with the judge’s sentence.

“He was fair,” she said.

Asked if she believed Kaur was remorseful, Gyorgy added, “I don’t care, to be honest with you.”

Collier’s obituary in the Mountain Democrat says she died Nov. 5 and that she was well known in El Dorado County.

“Barbara Ann was her own entrepreneur and well known as the Pickled Garlic Lady,” the obituary reads. “Her family business Barbara Ann’s Jams & Jellies was well-known on Apple Hill and in El Dorado County and that gave her the nickname Apple Grandma.

“Barbara’s other interest was fishing and got her the nickname of Fishing Grandma and her other was rock painting which also gave her the nickname Rock Grandma.”

Regulators from the California Department of Social Services visited the facility on Sept. 30 and substantiated allegations that the video showed a staff member hit the resident “on the side of the face and pull their hair.”

The staffer also was seen “roughly placing” the woman into bed, “throwing a blanket over (the resident’s) face and turning on and off the bedroom lights,” according to a report from DSS’ community care licensing division.

The violations “constitute physical abuse” and resulted in a $500 fine “for a resident sustaining a serious bodily injury while in care,” the report states.

This story was originally published March 17, 2022 at 5:00 AM.