UKIAH, Calif., Aug. 10 (UPI) -- Two women convicted of coating patients at a California nursing home with ointment for a practical joke on colleagues have been sentenced to 20 days in jail.
Monica Rose Smith, 52, and Jennifer Louise Burton, 34, must also serve two years probation, The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat reported. They were convicted of misdemeanor elder abuse at the Valley View Skilled Nursing Home in Ukiah.
Three other employees at the nursing home have received non-custodial sentences for elder abuse or failure to report it. The state has revoked the California nursing assistant licenses for all five, the Mendocino County District Attorney's Office said Tuesday.
Seven elderly patients were entirely covered with ointment, an action Gov. Jerry Brown, at the time state attorney general, described as "cruel and shocking." Investigators said it was done so the next shift of employees would have to deal with slippery patients.
The patients were not physically harmed.
