Attorney Says Faulty Locks, Alarm Led to Rape of Paralyzed Woman

The lawyer representing a paralyzed woman who was raped and impregnated at a North Hollywood nursing home told a San Fernando Superior Court jury Tuesday that corporate greed created conditions that allowed the crime to occur.

In closing arguments Tuesday, attorney Alan J. Schultz asked jurors to assess Laurelwood Convalescent Hospital more than $10 million in damages for gross negligence, which he said made the rape of Andrea Nerpel possible. Nerpel, 38, of North Hollywood, has lived at Laurelwood since she suffered major brain damage in an automobile accident at age 19.

Schultz said administrators at Laurelwood’s parent company, Western Medical Enterprises, were so greedy that they did not want to spend money on maintenance that might have prevented the rape, such as fixing broken door locks and an alarm system.

Defense attorney Richard Castle, however, called Schultz’s allegations “inflammatory rhetoric” unsupported by facts.

Raped in 1982

Nerpel, who cannot move or communicate in any meaningful way, was raped and made pregnant in 1982. Her grandmother, Elian Rose, who visited Nerpel daily, learned of the rape when she discovered that Nerpel was three months pregnant. Nerpel was given an abortion and sterilized.

The rapist was never identified, and the crime was not reported to police.

During the monthlong trial, two former nursing home employees testified that some doors could not be locked and that the alarm system sometimes did not work.

One employee testified that she once found a male patient in Nerpel’s room fondling her, but that nursing home administrators never tried to remove him from the home. The witness, Genevieve Olson, said she reported the incident to a supervisor. The supervisor testified that Olson made no such report.

“Why weren’t the doors fixed? Because it is expensive,” Schultz said. “Every penny you save puts money back into the corporation. Why wasn’t the alarm fixed? Same reason.

“It is the classic story of profits over people,” he said. “There is nothing wrong with a corporation making profits but not when they are feeding off of people we care about.”

Grudges Against Laurelwood

Castle denied that Laurelwood put profits above patients or left doors and the alarm system in disrepair to save money. No evidence supported those allegations aside from the testimony of the two former employees, who had grudges against Laurelwood, he said.

During the trial, nursing home administrators denied that security was lax. They said they had never received complaints about a patient fondling Nerpel before her pregnancy was discovered.

Laurelwood should not be blamed for the tragedy, which could have been caused by a staff member, another patient’s visitor or any number of people whom staff members thought had a legitimate reason to be there, Castle said.