HOLLYWOOD, FLA. (WSVN) - The former administrator of a nursing home where 12 elderly residents died after the building lost power during Hurricane Irma in 2017, has been acquitted.
On Friday afternoon, the judge granted the defense’s motion for the acquittal of Jorge Carballo for insufficient evidence.
The 65-year-old had been on trial for multiple counts of aggravated manslaughter in the case.
Over the phone, James Cobb, counsel for Carballo, called the trial a “complete and utter waste of time and taxpayer dollars.”
“Jorge is overwhelmed, and his family is overwhelmed,” said David Frankel, a lawyer for Carballo. “They’re just very grateful to the judge for seeing this.”
The State Attorney’s Office, meanwhile, filed for a motion for a rehearing, which the judge has scheduled for 9 a.m. Monday.
Carballo was blamed for not doing enough for residents at the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills after the air conditioning went out following the hurricane.
Carballo was criticized for not moving the residents quickly enough to Memorial Regional Hospital, where there was a working scene to accommodate them.
The state was tasked to prove there was gross negligence on Carballo’s part. He faced nine counts of aggravated manslaughter. Those elderly residents were between the ages of 57 to 99.
After two weeks of trial, and the state resting its case, the judge agreed with the defense who requested an acquittal.
The judge wrote, “The state has presented insufficient evidence that defendant 1) Engaged in a course of conduct that was reckless or wanton… or that 2) Defendant knew or should have known that his actions and omissions were reasonably likely to lead to the victims’ deaths or cause great bodily injury.”
“It’s been a years-long struggle for him,” said Frankel, “and we always believed when the facts came out, everybody would realize he had done everything he could for the people at the nursing home and that there was never any basis to charge him with a crime.”
But at least one family sees it differently.
The niece of Bobby Owens, one of those who died, reacted to 7News in a phone conversation.
“He was the administrator,” said Earlean lewis. “He had all of these nurses under him. He couldn’t tell them to take them across the street to the hospital?”
Three nurses were also once charged, but those charges were dropped, and the nurses ended up testifying against the administrator.
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