A Miami-Dade ALF worker slapped a woman with Alzheimer’s and pulled her hair, state says

A hidden camera caught a worker at a Kendall assisted living facility slapping and pulling the hair of an 87-year-old woman with Alzheimer’s disease, the Florida Attorney General’s office announced Wednesday.

Licensed certified nursing assistant Mayte Todd-Molina, 42, was booked into Miami-Dade County jail Wednesday morning on two counts of abuse of an elderly adult. Her arrest paperwork says Molina worked at The Palace Renaissance & Royale, 11355 SW 84th St., where the octogenarian lived.

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody stated soon after her 2018 election that elder abuse and elder fraud would be main targets of her office.

“It is incredibly sad to see a caregiver abuse a patient. Floridians utilize assisted living facilities once they are no longer able to take care of themselves and trust that caregivers will help, not harm them,” Moody said in a statement. “The suspect in this case has been apprehended and will have to face a court and answer for these reprehensible acts.”

According to the arrest paperwork, the son of the victim hired a personal aide to care for his mother at the ALF. In May 2018, the aide told the son that his mother had bruises. The ALF didn’t have any reports to explain the bruises, so the son hid a camera in an alarm clock. By the end of the month, the arrest paperwork said, he had his explanation for the bruises.

“One week later, the family member retrieved video footage that shows Todd-Molina pulling the resident’s hair and forcing the resident’s head back toward the pillow,” the attorney general’s office said. “On a separate occasion, video footage revealed Todd-Molina slapping the resident in the face and subsequently pulling the resident’s hair down toward the pillow.”

Online Florida Department of Health records say Molina’s been a licensed nursing assistant since June 2011. There are no previous disciplinary actions on her record.

Correction: The original version of this story misstated the gender of the alleged victim.

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