Two ex-administrators at a Bucks County nursing home sentenced to jail for covering up sexual assaults

Two former administrators at a Bucks County assisted-living facility were sentenced Tuesday to 3-to-24 months in the county jail for failing to report the sexual assaults of three dementia patients by another patient in their care.

Joy Alfonsi, 48, and Ashley Harker, 38, served as the director of nursing and general manager, respectively, at The Landing of Southampton, a 109-bed facility in Upper Southampton Township, until October 2021, when they were fired amid a criminal investigation into the assaults and the subsequent coverup.

Both pleaded guilty in January to three counts of endangering the welfare of a care-dependent person for discouraging their subordinates from filing written reports about the incidents or notifying county authorities, as required by state law.

» READ MORE: Administrators at a Bucks County nursing home failed to report three residents’ sexual abuse, prosecutors said

Bucks County Court Judge Gary B. Gillman, in handing down the sentences Tuesday, acknowledged that both women had dedicated their careers to serving others and had struggled recently with personal crises amid the public fallout of their arrests. But, he said, the punishment for their actions needed to discourage similar behavior in other facilities that house vulnerable people.

“This case is about having a moral compass, and needing one to protect those who can’t help themselves,” Gillman said. “How you got to the point where you callously didn’t report sexual assaults and then lied to the families of the victims, I do not know.”

State investigators were notified of the sexual assaults at The Landing through anonymous reports made by staff there in August 2021, according to the affidavit of probable cause for Alfonsi’s and Harker’s arrests. Investigators working with local police discovered that the three victims had been assaulted a month earlier by the same man, who was also a dementia patient at the facility.

The assaults took place in the span of four days, occurred in common areas where residents gather, and were witnessed by employees at the facility, according to the affidavit.

In each case, the male resident fondled or sexually assaulted a female resident and had to be pulled away by a staff member. The assailant did not face criminal charges because of his diminished capacity, and was moved to another facility.

Alfonsi’s attorney, Frank Genovese, told Gillman his client had never been properly trained for her job at The Landing, and found herself overworked as COVID swept the region and the facility was short-staffed.

» READ MORE: Ex-employees cited problems at a Bucks County nursing home long before officials allegedly hid sex abuse

“I submit to you that she was being genuine when she said she was working 80 hours a week and doing the jobs of multiple people,” Genovese said. “It is certainly not an excuse, but it provides context that if things were different, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”

Alfonsi apologized to the families of the victims assembled in the courtroom, saying she was truly sorry, worked long hours to serve residents of the facility and “never for one second thought” they were in danger.

Harker, too, said she was remorseful and would “never, ever intentionally cause harm to residents or their families.”

Her attorney, William Goldman, said she was not present at the facility when the first two assaults took place, and didn’t learn of them until months later, when police began investigating.

She did know about the third assault, and properly reported it to the corporation that operates The Landing, Goldman said.

“You report what you know, and she did do that,” Goldman said. “She has accepted responsibility as she stands here before you today.”

Deputy Attorney General Benjamin McKenna disputed that, saying testimony before a grand jury contradicted Harker’s assertion that she was unaware of the assaults.

“We’re not talking about not reporting a fall or missed medication. This was sexual assault,” he said. “But these defendants treated it like a fallen Band-Aid, and tried to brush it aside.”

The reports the two administrators eventually filed were “sanitized,” according to McKenna, and did not include documentation about the assaults.

“This is about broken trust,” he said. “To be betrayed by this kind of carelessness, this recklessness, that’s something that we as a society need to take seriously.”

Relatives of the victims tearfully testified before Gillman on Tuesday explaining the toll the incidents had taken, and the guilt they felt over placing their loved ones in the defendants’ care.

Melissa Friedman, the daughter of one of the victims, said she will be forever haunted by the ordeal her mother was put through in the last months of her life.

“I expected the defendants to give her the attention she deserved at the time she needed it the most,” she said. “Had they taken the actions they were legally required to, they could’ve prevented these disgusting assaults.”