Ex-Nursing Aide Held in Death of Patient

A former Long Beach nursing home employee has been arrested in connection with the beating death of a 74-year-old patient, and the Los Angeles County Grand Jury is investigating a possible cover-up by nursing home personnel “to prevent the truth from coming to light,” Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner announced Friday.

Second-degree murder charges will be filed Monday against Lito Aqui, 26, in the death of patient Aubrey Fanning in the Hillcrest Convalescent Hospital in December, 1984, Reiner said.

The grand jury began hearing witnesses Thursday to determine whether other workers at the 154-bed facility engaged in a “conspiracy of silence . . . not to fully disclose to proper authorities the circumstances of Mr. Fanning’s death,” Reiner said.

Lawyer Denies Charges

“They apparently saw no evil and heard no evil,” Reiner said. “This is not General Hospital, it is a relatively small nursing home--and it’s interesting that (in) the investigation afterward and (in) questioning the people that were on staff there at the time, by and large they really know nothing of any such beating. . . . It’s that suspicious indication of a cover-up that is the subject of our continuing investigation.”

Aqui’s lawyer, Joseph Shemaria, said the charges result from “a false and phony story” provided to authorities by Fanning’s former roommate in the nursing home.

Shemaria said the Hillcrest home has an impeccable reputation for being “well-run, efficient and clean.” He said Reiner is suffering from “paranoid schizophrenic delusions of conspirators behind every door of the hospital. It’s ludicrous and it’s absolutely false.”

Authorities charge that Fanning, a former coal mine and lumberyard worker who suffered from Parkinson’s disease, was beaten on the head and body by Aqui in a confrontation stemming from the changing of Fanning’s soiled bed clothes.

Arrested and Released

Aqui, a certified nursing assistant, was arrested and booked on suspicion of murder in February, 1985, but was released three days later when the district attorney’s office said it lacked evidence to prosecute.

Aqui, now a department store employee, had told police that he stepped in when Fanning tried to hit a nursing assistant with a plastic urinal bottle. Aqui said he attempted to block the blow and held Fanning down as Fanning thrashed about on his bed. Hours after Aqui left the room, Fanning complained of headaches and dizziness. After slipping into a coma, he was taken to a hospital and died nine days later.

During an August, 1985, coroner’s inquest, Aqui refused to answer questions, citing his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination. The county coroner’s office eventually determined that Fanning had died as a result of blunt force trauma to the head. Authorities said they still lacked evidence to charge Aqui.

Reiner said that about two months ago, a former patient at the nursing home called Long Beach police and said that he no longer resided at Hillcrest and would now be willing to disclose what occurred. The witness, whose name is being withheld, said he did not come forward earlier because he feared for his safety while still in the nursing home, according to Reiner.

Shemaria said Friday that the witness went to authorities after unsuccessfully seeking to blackmail nursing home officials, a claim that the district attorney’s office said it had never heard.

The home’s administrator, Tessie Valdez, said she has worked there for only nine months and would not comment on the death or on allegations of a cover-up. She said the witness told home officials that he would make trouble if he was not paid $100. The home’s president, James Zisman, was on vacation Friday and unavailable for comment, she added.

According to Valdez, the home has about 125 employees, many of whom were working there at the time of Fanning’s death.