As federal prosecutors pursue criminal negligence charges tied to the 2020 death of a patient at a Washington-area psychiatric hospital, the Justice Department said the allegations center on what it describes as failures to provide lifesaving medical care in the final minutes leading to death. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced that three former employees of the Psychiatric Institute of Washington were charged in connection with the patient’s death in April 2020.
Pirro said the defendants “violated the most basic standard of medical care,” and she told reporters, “This trio did nothing to help this patient. This man didn’t have a chance there. He was left to die.” The indictment alleges the trio failed to provide adequate medical care before the patient died nearly six years ago.
The three defendants are Nelson Kuma, 37, and Richard Hounnou, 45, both identified as psychiatric counselors, and Norma Munoz-Bent, 68, a registered nurse, according to the indictment described by prosecutors. All three live in Maryland and were charged with criminal negligence.
The patient in the indictment was identified only by initials, but a wrongful-death lawsuit identified him as Gary Wilson, according to the report. Prosecutors said Wilson, who had a heart condition, was admitted to the facility on April 13, 2020, and died on the afternoon of April 26, 2020—about 13 days later.
Prosecutors allege the defendants failed to provide lifesaving measures for at least 21 minutes. Pirro said the case involves a failure to follow the most basic standard of medical care rather than a difference in judgment, and the indictment describes Wilson’s condition as a serious emergency that required immediate response.
Wilson’s death was also cited in an advocacy group’s 2021 report on conditions at the institute. The Disability Rights DC report described what it called “very disturbing specific and systemic failures,” and The Washington Post reported that Wilson’s death was part of those findings.
The hospital where the alleged conduct took place is a 130-bed facility that provides behavioral health programs for children, adolescents and adults, according to the facility’s website. The institute is operated by a subsidiary of Universal Health Services Inc., a Pennsylvania-based company.
In addition to the criminal case, Wilson’s family pursued civil litigation. The lawsuit, filed by Wilson’s niece, alleges Wilson was left unattended in violation of orders for constant supervision before he began convulsing and appeared to stop breathing, and that staff members entered his room two minutes later but failed to provide life-saving treatment. The lawsuit also alleges the hospital falsified Wilson’s medical records, saying the life-threatening emergency was not noted in the hospital’s medical records and only came to light due to interviews conducted by the city’s health department.
Last month, a Superior Court judge agreed to suspend the civil case pending the outcome of the Justice Department’s criminal case, according to the report. Universal Health Services has asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit.
After the charges, Kuma and Hounnou and Munoz-Bent were released after pleading not guilty on Tuesday to a charge that carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, Pirro said. Prosecutors said they are due back in court on May 29, and the report said attorneys for Hounnou and Munoz-Bent did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment, while court filings did not include the name of an attorney for Kuma. Efforts to reach officials from the institute and its parent company were not immediately successful, according to the report.