Charges Brought Against Owners of New Orleans Nursing Home

By Daniel Hawn

Published on September 22, 2006

Salvador Mangano and his wife Mabel, owners of St. Rita's nursing home in St. Bernard Parish, were indicted by a grand jury in Chalmette, Louisiana, on Wednesday. For months following Hurricane Katrina, a grand jury could not be convened due to damage to government facilities and the dislocation of residents.

The Monganos face 35 counts of negligent homicide for the deaths of nearly three dozen patients at the nursing home they owned. The cruelty charge alleges that the couple conscientiously or through extreme negligence mistreated or neglected a total of 64 patients. The charge is thought to cover the patients who died as well as those who survived.

To date, the Manganos have been served with more than 30 lawsuits from residents of the nursing home or the family members of those who died.

The Manganos say their plan in preparation for the hurricane was to allow the nursing home residents to remain at the facility, rather than to risk moving them. They say they had food, water, and generators ready and that if the levees had held firm, the deaths would have been prevented.

The couple’s attorney has defended his clients by saying that prior to Hurricane Katrina, the nursing home had never been flooded.

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