6 events in Passaic County with a date

NJ charges group home operator with neglect

Case follow probe into alleged care failures at Elwyn facilities

By: Ashley Balcerzak
and Jean rimbech
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... In a rare move, the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General brought neglect charges against on of the state's larges operators of group homes for adults with developmental disabilities - and six of its employees -after workers allegedly left a resident on the floor for nearly seven hours without offering assistance.
..... The state's charges in May [2025] against the provider, Elwyn, came around these same time another state agency took the uncommon actions of banning Elwyn from accepting new group home residents amid state concerns about staff shortages and deaths. Elwyn has 51 group homes in New Jersey that can house more than 200 people.
..... Both moves came days after NorthJersey.com published its Hidden at Home series, which revealed series ongoing problems in the $1.5 billion group home system, including a lack of basic care for residents, dozens of preventable deaths, and regulators who rarely punish poorly-performing providers.
..... The state's Medicaid Fraud Control unit within the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor field criminal complaints in May, [2025] centering around two falls caught on surveillance footage of S.K., a woman who was 60 years old or older, at a Vineland group home run Elwyn two years earlier, in April 2023. The woman;s full name was not included in the complaints.
..... "The safety of the individuals we serve is our highest priority. Elwyn denies any criminal conduct in its management of this facility, and anticipates resolving this matter through a non-criminal administrative resolution mutually acceptable with Elwyn and the New Jersey attorney general," said Kurt Knaus, an Elwyn spokesperson.
..... He also pointed to an accreditation Elwyn recently received in abuse prevention that took two years to complete.
..... The Attorney General's Office did not respond to questions posed in writing thee weeks ago.
..... A NorthJersey.com analysis found only one other case since 2018 in which prosecutors charged a group home company: Middlesex County prosecutors charged Broadway Group Home LLC in 2019 with neglect and endangerment.

S.K.'s falls and workers' response

..... On April 13, 2024, S.K. fell in the living room of her Elwyn group home around 4 PM. She remained on the floor for three hour; two direct care workers and a manager did not any effort to help her up or ask if she was OK, said Deputy Attorney General Laura Bryant, according to court audio obtained by NorthJersey.com .
..... S.K. - who had an unspecified intellectual disability - wore a helmet and a gait belt and was supposed to be supp vised at all times according to her service plan, Bryant said.
..... Despite that supervision requirement, two days later S.K. entered the bathroom alone and fell around 12:15 PM. She was left there until 7 in the evening, Bryant said.
..... When one worker - not charged by the state - called a director asking for help, the director told the worker to leave her on the floor, the deputy attorney general said.
..... Another worker arrived at her shift after S.K. had been on the floor for several hours. Camera footage shows she dragged S.K. into another room, Bryant said.
..... When S.K. crawled out, covered in fecal matter and urine because she had soiled herself, the same worker dragged S.K. back int the bathroom across the tile, showed her while she was still on the floor, and dragged her out, Bryant said.
..... Once in the hallway, she hit S.K., according to camera footage, Bryan said.
..... The worker admitted Elwyn did not train her to hold or drag residents in that way, Bryant said.
.....The state also charged Elwyn's director of operations, alleging he failed to implement policies and procedures so S.K.;s fall could have been prevented.
..... In the complaint against Elwyn, the state accused the company of neglect by "failing to put in place protocols for the safety of S.K. and failing to tend to S.K." after her falls.
..... S.K. has since died, Bryant said the state is not alleging that the April 2023 falls contributed to her death.
..... All six workers originally pleaded not guilty during their arraignment, according to court audio.
..... For most of the workers, the state said in court proceedings, it was offering a plea deal for pretrial intervention and 100 hours of community service. The state would also want workers to commit not to work in direct support positions where thy are caring for vulnerable populations such as children or people with disabilities or mental illness, Bryant said.
..... Court records show one worker was admitted into pretrial intervention in September. [2-25]
..... It's unclear how many defendants requested pretrial intervention and whether the sate accepted those applications. The program, offered generally to first time offenders, allows charges to be dismissed if defendants meet certain conditions and take advantage of rehabilitative services, under the supervision of probation officers.
..... It's also unclear how many defendants, if any were added to New Jersey;s Central Registry of Offenders -a list of caregivers found to have exploited abused or neglected someone with intellectual or developmental disabilities. Those on the registry are banned from working with this population in state-overseen programs.
..... The no-hire list of names is not available to the public.
..... NorthJersey.com obtained data that includes the date when a staff member was added, and the last company where he or she worked before bing banned. Ten former Elwyn workers were added to the registry between 2011 and December of 2024.
..... Elwyn entered a not guilty plea in the case in October. [2025]
..... In the most recent court proceeding, Elwyn's attorney and the state indicated they were negotiating a civil resolution which would mean criminal charges would likely be dropped, depending on the agreement.

One other company charged by prosecutors

..... NorthJersey.com identified only one other similar cases since 2018 in which prosecutors charged a company that operates group homes and day programs for adults with developmental disabilities.
..... Middlesex County charged Just Home Adult Medical care - also known as Broadway - and five of its works with assault, abandonment and neglect, and endangerment in 2019.
..... As in the case with Elwyn, prosecutors had video footage from Broadway's East Brunswick day program. It showed a worker slam a young woman with autism into a wall, punch her in the face, put her in a headlock and knock her across the room, according to court audio and filings describing the footage.
..... Another worker kicked a man with cerebral palsy who had slid onto the floor. A coworker grabbed him and threw him back into his wheelchair. Two other workers were present and did nothing, according to court audio and filings.
..... Zhanna Basina, the CEO of Broadway at the time, signed a non-prosecution agreement with the county Prosecutor's Office in April 2020, agreeing to pay a $100,000 fine up front, enhance training, make policy changes and pay for three years of monitoring.
..... "It was to serve as a general deterrent for similarly-situated businesses to say, "if you cut corners, if you hire people without scrutinizing them properly and not the proper vetting, this is what could happen. You get hit with a nasty fine, and then you're going to be under a monitor for three years," said Russell Curley, who prosecuted the case and is now in private practice. "that's pretty onerous requirement."
..... NorthJersey.com reached out to Basina and the company earlier this year [2025] before writing about the case in a story published in May. [2025]
..... At the time, Basina did not respond to a certified letter request for comment. RHA Health Services, which brought Broadway in 2023, wrote in a statement, "we are committed to providing high quality services in safe and healthy environments for the people we serve."

Suspension and increased oversight

..... In May of 2025, the Department of Human Services - the agency that oversees group homes - sent Elwyn a letter suspending residential admissions, saying repeated staff shortages contributed to deaths and serious injuries to residents. The state warned the company that the state will increase day-to-day oversight if corrections aren't made.
..... "It is apparent to the Department that there is a direct correlate between these staff shortages and serious injuries, neglect and deaths of individuals under your agency's purview," a state official told Elwyn in a letter obtain by NorthJersey.com through a public records request.
..... "Elwyn rejects any suggestion that staffing shortages - a common problem for all providers in New Jersey - have resulted in preventable deaths for its residents,: Elwyn spokesperson Taylor Allen told NorthJersey.com.
..... Elwyn was warned that the state could form a Quality Management Team, or QMT, which is the highest level of state oversight for a group home company. The team is composed of state officials who meet periodically to monitor changes and progress.
..... As of August, [2025] the state had not organized a QMT for Elwyn, but top state officials did join Elwyn leaders in a "pre-QMT" meeting in July, [2025] meeting minutes show. And Elwyn agreed to provided the state with monthly updates on improvement measures, such as enhancements to staff training and work with contractors to improve processes.
..... The statue of the admissions suspension and pre-QMT is unclear.

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