D.A. Won’t File Charges in Nursing Home Deaths

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office declined Tuesday to file criminal charges against the operator of a Lake View Terrace home for the elderly where two women became fatally ill from lack of heat last winter.

The Los Angeles County coroner’s office had ruled that the deaths of Carolyn Fancon, 71, on Christmas Day and Frances Innis, 76, on Feb. 3 were homicides caused by neglect. Both women were residents of the now-closed Mountainview board and care home when they became ill from hypothermia within a 16-day period.

On the day Fancon was hospitalized and died, authorities said, the thermostat in the home was set below 60 degrees. Authorities said that six days before Innes was hospitalized, state inspectors found the temperature inside the home to be 61 degrees--seven degrees below the state minimum temperature requirement.

Rebecca Cate, operator of the six-bed home, was cited for violating the state code.

But the district attorney’s office concluded Tuesday that there was insufficient evidence that Cate intended to hurt the women or was responsible for the deaths. Authorities also reported that a key witness in the investigation, a man who worked in the home with Cate, gave detectives several different versions of who had turned down the heat and why.

“The bottom line is that we feel we have insufficient evidence to prove a criminal case,” said Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the district attorney. “We can’t place anybody actually turning the heat down. In a nursing home, it could have been any number of people, including other patients. The main witness has told several different versions of what happened.”

The decision left Los Angeles police unhappy. Detectives who investigated the deaths of the two women and learned of repeated occasions when the temperature of the home was below legal levels had asked prosecutors to file charges.

“If we had one death we wouldn’t feel as strongly,” said Lt. Bernard D. Conine, head of Foothill Division detectives. “But we have two deaths by neglect from the same place. And you have an owner who was cited for a violation between the deaths. We feel . . . the correct charge would be manslaughter.”

Will Refer Case

Conine said he will refer the case to his superiors, who will decide whether to again ask the district attorney’s office to file criminal charges.

Cate, who lives at the home in the 11400 block of Jeff Avenue, has refused to comment on the investigation. The state Department of Social Services is in the process of revoking her license to operate the home, and she agreed in March to stop caring for elderly people, said Daniel Garcia, a department attorney.

According to police and state records, Fancon was hospitalized Dec. 25 after being found semi-conscious on the floor in the home. Paramedics found the thermostat in the home set below 60 degrees. Fancon’s body temperature was measured at 73 to 75 degrees, compared to the normal 98.6 degrees. She died of hypothermia a few hours later.

Innis was hospitalized with hypothermia on Jan. 10, six days after state inspectors found the home’s temperature at 61 degrees during a noontime inspection. Her body temperature was 84 degrees. She died 24 days later after developing pneumonia.

‘Agreed to Disagree’

Detectives met with Deputy Dist. Atty. William P. Kelly on Tuesday to discuss the case, but Kelly declined to file charges. He could not be reached for comment.

“We agreed to disagree,” Conine said. “They feel they don’t have a winnable case.”

Authorities said the witness who has given conflicting accounts of what happened in the home is a 55-year-old Filipino immigrant who was untrained in adult care but who was left in charge of the home when Cate was not there.