Ex-staffer at Morris Plains senior center sentenced to prison for 'horrendous' assault

A former maintenance worker at a Morris Plains senior living facility who admitted he sexually assaulted an elderly resident with Alzheimer's disease in 2020 will serve five years in prison, a state Superior Court judge ruled Friday.

Anthony Ligon, 63, an Army veteran, declined to excuse his actions in a Morris County courtroom and instead said that a combination of alcohol and potent mood stabilizing medications, a "crutch" to handle the same-day deaths of his ex-wife and mother, contributed to his inappropriate sexual acts against the 77-year-old resident inside her apartment.

But despite recognizing that Ligon appeared to show repentance to the victim and her family, who was present but had prosecutors read a letter to the court, Judge Stephen Taylor could not shake the "truly troubling" details of the incident and the well-educated Morristown man's motivation behind the assault.

"This is a horrendous case. This is a sexual assault of an elderly woman suffering dementia and Alzheimer's disease," said Taylor. "She was powerless, lacked an ability to adequately defend herself [against the] actions of Mr. Ligon."

Ligon, who was indicted in 2021 on four sexual-assault-related charges, previously pleaded guilty to a second-degree crime of sexual assault by force and coercion. Taylor followed the recommendations of the prosecutor when he imposed the sentence, declining to shave off a year, and with it, dropping the crime to third-degree at the request of Ligon's attorney, Joseph Corazza.

Corazza called his client's actions an anomaly, saying Ligon had only a minor criminal history involving no other sexual assault allegations.

Ligon, who was ordered to remain in jail shortly after his June 2020 arrest, was caught by another employee on top of the woman with his pants and underwear off, according to police records. The employee, who was doing nightly rounds, allegedly told police she entered the victim's dark room because she heard the woman saying she was being hurt. The victim told police she was raped and she complained of vaginal pain, records show. Ligon was fired shortly after.

Ligon's ex-wife and mother died the day of the assault, Corazza said, and Ligon was unable to take off work due to having used up his personal days. As a result, Ligon "fell off the wagon" after years of sobriety and went to work after having ingested alcohol and heavy doses of medications to treat bipolar disorder and PTSD, Corazza said.

His actions were "so far out of comprehension for how he's comported himself over his 63-year life," Corazza said, adding that Ligon proudly served in the U.S. Army, where he was deployed overseas to Germany from 1980 to 1984 before being honorably discharged in 1986 after serving in the U.S. Army Reserve. He also obtained nursing assistant certifications and an associate's degree and was nearing completion for his bachelor's degree at Aspen University School of Nursing.

Assistant Prosecutor Catherine LaQuaglia countered that although she did not dispute that Ligon was drunk at the time, he was also aware of his actions, because he told the employee to stay quiet about the incident and tried to flee the nursing home before police caught him. He initially told police he was in the woman's room to fix her sink and saw her with no clothes on, so he placed a blanket on her, court records show.

"When families put their trust in facilities such as this one, they have an expectation that their relatives will be kept safe and protected, and the defendant has really shattered that for this family," LaQuaglia said. "There is a strong need to send a message that this type of behavior will not be tolerated."

In a letter to the court read by LaQuaglia, the family of the victim called Ligon's actions "deeply disturbing," stating that it was a violation of the woman's bodily integrity that left her feeling helpless, powerless and depraved.

"We ask that you be held sufficiently accountable for inflicting such unspeakable harm to the most vulnerable and most dear member of our family," they wrote.

Ligon said he keeps the victim and her family in prayer "each and every day" for the pain he inflicted, hoping they recover mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually.

Taylor said that although it would be easy to excuse Ligon's actions on a combination of alcohol and medications, it was troubling that there was never any explanation as to his motivation to commit the crime. A psychologist opined that there was insufficient evidence to find Ligon a repetitive and compulsive sexual offender and recommended he undergo therapy to "better understand the motivation of his behavior," Taylor said, reading from the doctor's report.

Ligon will have to serve 85% of his sentence, or roughly four years and three months, before being eligible for release on parole. He was given credit for 895 days already served in jail. He will have to register under Megan's Law, be on community supervision for life and have no contact with the victim or her family.

Lori Comstock can be reached on Twitter: @LoriComstockNJH, on Facebook: www.Facebook.com/LoriComstockNJH or by phone: 973-383-1194.

This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Morris Plains NJ ex-senior center staffer sentenced for sex assault