EDITOR'S NOTE: An earlier version of this story included a photo of the wrong Tony T. Bailey. The photo has been removed.
ST. LOUIS COUNTY • An employee of a nursing home near Florissant has been charged with sexually abusing three residents.
Tony T. Bailey, 39, of Flamingo Drive, was charged Thursday in St. Louis County Circuit Court with misdemeanor counts of assault, illegal deviate sexual intercourse with a resident of a skilled nursing facility and sexual conduct with a nursing facility resident.
Charges say a 71-year-old resident of the Crestwood Health Care Center, 11400 Mehl Avenue, reported that Bailey grabbed her bare buttocks as she came out of the shower. The woman described the contact as "surprising and shocking and unwanted," charges say.
St. Louis County police investigated the case and discovered that two other female residents, both in their late 20s, had performed sex acts on Bailey while he was on the job, court records say.
The crimes took place between Dec. 8, 2016, and Jan. 20 of this year, charges say.
No lawyer was listed for him in court records. Jail officials said Bailey was not in custody yet.
A woman who answered the phone at Crestwood on Friday told a reporter, "I have no idea who you're talking about," and hung up.
Crestwood's parent company is Maryland Heights-based Reliant Care Management, which says on its website that it operates about two dozen nursing homes across Missouri. Calls to the company headquarters Friday were not returned.
It mission statement says its facilities are "dedicated to providing quality care in a caring and dignified manner" to those 18 and older who are frail, elderly and mentally ill: "Our goal is to provide unparalleled care using a team like approach through empowering employees while at the same time meeting the needs of the respective communities, physicians, hospitals and other health care providers."
This past summer, Reliant's holding company agreed to pay $8.3 million to settle claims that the company and affiliates provided unnecessary physical, speech and occupational therapy to nursing home residents and billed Medicare. The company also has agreed to a five-year “Corporate Integrity Agreement” with the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General.
The 100 block in the suspect's address has been removed from this post because a resident of that block said he was being harassed about the crime, even though he had no connection to it.
