Office of the Attorney General
Former Group Home Administrator Pleads Guilty to Neglecting Patients

Attorney General Jack Conway today announced a plea agreement was reached in the case of a former Kentucky group home administrator accused of neglecting patients. Terry Wallingford, who previously ran New Hope, LLC, a Support for Community Living group home in Mercer County, Ky., waived his right to a grand jury hearing and was charged by information in Mercer Circuit Court on Tuesday, November 10. Wallingford, currently of Harrodsburg, Ky, pled guilty to one count of wanton neglect of a vulnerable adult under KRS 209.990(3), a Class D felony.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, Wallingford will receive a two-year sentence and has agreed to no longer work with vulnerable adults or in the healthcare industry. The sentence is to be run concurrent to a separate case against Wallingford involving sexual abuse.

From October 2007 and continuing until March 2008, Wallingford was the manager of New Hope, LLC, a group home in Burgin, Ky. for the mentally handicapped. Wallingford failed to properly supervise and train employees at New Hope and failed to properly investigate and take action on allegations of employee neglect and abuse which led to other residents being abused and neglected at New Hope.

In October 2008, Josh Wallingford, Terry Wallingford’s son, pled guilty to four counts of endangering the welfare of a minor in connection to the abuse and neglect of residents at New Hope. In December 2008, Dennis Wofford, a caregiver at New Hope, also pled guilty to endangering the welfare of a minor in connection to the abuse and neglect of a resident.

General Conway’s Office of Medicaid Fraud and Abuse Control investigated this case and worked jointly with the Mercer County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office in handling the prosecution.

"I am pleased to see that through the hard work of our investigators and prosecutors working with local law enforcement that this administrator, who was trusted to care for some of Kentucky’s most vulnerable citizens, was brought to justice and will never again be able to neglect another patient," said General Conway.

Sentencing is scheduled for January 12, 2009 at 9:00 a.m. in Mercer Circuit Court.

Terry Wallingford