Quadrangle Lawyer, Judge Argue Over Order

After a heated debate over what documents was willing to release to the defense lawyers of three former care workers, Judge Kevin F. Kelly ordered that the trial date for the case of alleged abuse be Monday, Nov. 14.

Robert Wright, the attorney representing Quadrangle and its executive director Denise Miller, told Kelly Monday morning that his original order to release Quadrangle’s documents regarding Lois McCallister was too broad and that it included information of other patients.

McCallister, a 78-year-old woman who suffers from severe dementia, was allegedly assaulted by Ayesha Muhammad, and . The three have been charged with simple assault, criminal conspiracy, neglect of care-dependent person, recklessly endangering another person, and harassment.

Part of the .

In addition to telling Kelly that the judge’s order was too broad, Wright also stated that some of the documents also contain nursing home “trade secrets,” which resulted in snickers from those in the courtroom.

“(The documents) can fill up a filing cabinet,” Wright answered Kelly when the judge asked him how many documents pertained to the order.

However, the two men exchanged heated words, with Kelly saying that his order from last month stated that Quadrangle documents regarding McCallister were to be released to the defense attorneys.

“How you read my order and how I wrote my order are two different things,” Kelly shot at Wright.

The defense attorneys told the judge that they wanted the documents that Quadrangle was withholding, stating there could be evidence to help their clients, such as documents that might state that McCallister was always making claims against other caretakers.

But a frustrated Kelly told the defense lawyers that any documents released would not help their case much.

“Without the video tape, none of us would be here,” he said.

Kelly ordered that the defense lawyers and Wright have a short conference to decide what specific documents were needed so the judge could amend his original order.

After about 45 minutes, they came back into the courtroom with an agreement of what Quadrangle documents were to be released:

• Quadrangle’s personnel files of the three accused.
• McCallister’s resident chart, which will include the care plan for her.
• Questionnaires, which Wright could not elaborate to the Haverford-Havertown Patch.

Once the judge amended his order, the attorneys and the accused left.

Wright explained to Patch why the judge’s original order was too broad.

“It’s people here are not people who work in the industry of assisted living. So there’s terminology and there is procedures that they are unfamiliar with,” he said. “What we did today was to get very specific about what is being requested … because the previous order was too broad.” 

The trial was supposed to start Monday, Sept. 12, but because Quadrangle had issues with the judge’s original order and the order has been amended, it has been rescheduled for Monday, Nov. 14.

The three accused did not want to comment to Patch and Patch was unable to get a hold of their attorneys.