Ex-administrators at Southampton personal care home sentenced: 'They abused their power'

Two former administrators of a Upper Southampton personal care home will serve jail time for covering up sex abuse allegations that resulted in additional assaults on residents.

At an emotional hearing Tuesday, Ashley Harker, 37, of Philadelphia, and Joy Alfonsi, 48, of Harleysville, were each sentenced to serve three to 24 months at the Bucks County Correctional center followed by six years of probation for failing to report abuse at the former Landing of Southampton in 2021.

Bucks County Judge Gary Gilman also barred the women from working in the health care field again.

Bucks senior home's troubled history Bucks County senior home had history of violations before administrator arrests, records show

Harker and Alfonsi worked as the general manager and director of health and wellness respectively at the 106-bed personal and memory care home on Street Road, which opened in September, 2019.

Family members described how the assaults and coverup impacted the lives of their loved ones and family. They expressed gratitude for the employees whose anonymous reports to authorities triggered the investigation.

One woman said her late mother was assaulted one month after she entered the home. At the time, she used a wheelchair and had trouble communicating.

The woman said she visited her mother every day but it wasn’t until a Department of Aging representative called her in September 2021 that she learned her mother had reportedly been sexually assaulted.

“All of which I knew nothing about,” she said.

The daughter said when she confronted Alfonsi and Harker about the allegations they denied it.

“I understand that things happen in memory care, but I don’t understand why anyone thought this shouldn’t be reported,” she added.

The women were terminated amid state and local criminal investigations that found the administrators ignored and failed to report employee statements that an elderly male resident sexually assaulted three female residents over six days in July 2021. The perpetrator and victims had dementia.

Earlier this year Harker and Alfonsi pleaded guilty to three counts of endangering the welfare of a care dependent person, a felony charge that had them facing a potential maximum 21 year prison sentence.

Before sentencing, Gilman acknowledged the women appeared remorseful, but noted that when the defendants were presented with multiple opportunities to do the right thing and protect vulnerable residents, they made something else a priority.

“These defendants treated it like someone’s Band-aid fell off,” Gilman said. “We have to send a message of what society values.”

The defendants each apologized to the families of the three victims. Both women said they set aside their personal lives during the COVID pandemic, which left the center understaffed and employees overworked.

“There was zero malicious intent,” Alfonsi said. “All I ever wanted to do was be a nurse. I’ve paid the price for not reporting. I will live with this for the rest of my life and there is nothing I can do about it.

Harker faced the families and apologized and insisted she would never intentionally harm a resident or their family.

"It’s not in me, and not something I’d ever do,” she added. “I am just so remorseful. I never could have predicted this is where my life and my career would go.”

Landings victim family member: "Instead of doing the right thing, they abused their power"

Another woman testified that her mother was assaulted two days after another victim, and she believes Harker and Alfonsi could have prevented it if they didn’t intentionally conceal the first one.

“Instead of doing the right thing, they abused their power,” she added.

The wife of another victim testified that in early August, 2021, Harker notified her that her wife, who was a resident in the memory care unit, had witnessed a male resident masterbating. A few weeks later, though, she received an anonymous text claiming her wife was being abused.

When she confronted Harker again, her response was that the state investigated and found nothing, and the police were not going to find anything either.

“I trusted them to care for (my wife),” she said. “She was essentially raped under their care.”

In April 2022 the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, which oversees personal care homes, placed The Landings on a provisional operating license, which subjected them to closer state monitoring and inspections.

The regular full license was restored in July, roughly four months after a new management company took operations at the facility, which is now called Providence of Southampton.

More on problem assisted living center Troubled Upper Southampton personal care home under new management, name

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This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Bucks County senior home administrators sentenced for not reporting abuse