Nurses seen on video laughing as WWII vet dies indicted

February 22, 2018

DECATUR, Ga. — A Georgia grand jury has indicted two nurses and an aide in the death of an elderly patient.

Former licensed nurse practitioners Loyce Pickquet Agyeman, of Snellville, faces a charge of felony murder and neglect to an elder person and Wanda Nuckles, of Buford, is charged with depriving an elder person of essential services. Certified nurse assistant Mable Turman, of College Park, is charged with neglect to an elder person.

A screengrab, used by permission from WXIA-TV, shows a part of the video that the television station discovered while investigating a war veteran’s death at a nursing home.

WXIA-TV

All three also were indicted on one count of concealing the death of another in the indictment returned Tuesday by a DeKalb County grand jury.

The charges stem from the Feb. 27, 2014 death of 89-year-old James Dempsey, a World War II veteran and patient at Northeast Atlanta Rehabilitation Center. The indictment alleges the defendants failed to provide timely medical assistance resulting in Dempsey’s death.

The Brookhaven Police Department launched a criminal investigation after television station WXIA uncovered hidden camera video that showed nurses ignoring Dempsey as he repeatedly calls for help and gasps for air. It also shows the nurses failing to take life-saving measures and laughing as they try to start an oxygen machine. The station’s report also uncovered video depositions in which the nurses changed their stories.

Dempsey’s family sued the Northeast Atlanta Health and Rehabilitation Center in 2014. A statement from the center at the time says care has improved since then, under different leadership.