94-Year-Old Charged With Raping CoResident In Oklahoma Nursing Home
Posted by Jonathan Rosenfeld on March 04, 2009
Charges of first-degree rape by instrumentation have been filed against 94-year-old
Lester Pendergast. The charges stem from a September, 2008 incident when a witness
caught Pendergast performing a sexual act on a 67-year-old at the Grace Living Center in
Oklahoma. A local hospital used a rape kit to confirm the sexual contact had taken place.
According to a statement released by the facility, “Grace Living Center of Edmond takes
the responsibility to protect all residents very seriously. We discovered the incident and
immediately took steps to provide for the safety and care of the residents; we reported the
matter to the health department and police; and the male resident was promptly removed
from the facility. We have cooperated fully with authorities throughout the
investigation.”
A Perfect Cause, an organization dedicated to long-term care reform, believes it is in the
best interest of other nursing home residents to publicly identify Mr. Pendergast as a
sexual offender.
Oklahoma is slated to be the first state in the country to open a special nursing home
dedicated to housing sex offenders exclusively. Read more about this nursing home rape
here.
Sex Offenders In Nursing Homes
Currently, our nursing home system does little to prevent known sexual predators from
becoming part of the general nursing home population. As we can see by this case, age
does not take away violent tendencies.
In order for nursing home residents to live safely, nursing homes should take preventative
measures: conducting background screens of all residents, refusing to accept known sex
offenders as residents, keeping younger nursing home residents away from the older ones
and providing adequate supervision.
According to Kathleen Dugan of The Lebanon Daily News, common signs of sexual
abuse include:
Physical signs of sexual abuse:
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Bruising on inner thighs
Genital or anal bleeding
Sexually transmitted disease
Difficulty walking or standing
Pain and/or itching in the genital area
Exacerbation of existing illness
Emotional signs of sexual abuse:
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Scared or timid behavior
Depressed, withdrawn behavior
Sudden changes in personality
Odd, misplaced comments about sex or sexual behavior
Fear of certain people or of physical characteristics