Former care worker sentenced to 17 years for patient abuse
A former McGuire Memorial direct care worker was sentenced to 17 years in prison on Thursday after pleading guilty to federal hate crime charges.
Zachary Dinell, 29, formerly of Freedom, pleaded guilty in October to one count of conspiracy, 10 counts of violating the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act and one count of concealing material facts in a health care matter for his role in abusing more than a dozen patients with severe disabilities at the Daugherty Township facility.
During a Thursday plea hearing, Dinell said he and co-defendant Tyler Smith, of New Brighton, engaged in a conspiracy to commit hate crimes against residents of the facility because of the residents’ disabilities. The case against Smith is still pending; a status hearing is scheduled for February.
More:Former Beaver County health care worker pleads guilty to hate crime charges
From approximately June 2016 to September 2017, Dinell said the two carried out physical assaults on vulnerable patients, including punching and kicking residents, rubbing hand sanitizer in their eyes, spraying liquid irritants, including mouthwash, in their eyes and mouths and, in one instance, removing a resident’s compression stocking to inflict pain.
Several of these assaults were recorded on Dinell’s cell phone. Dinell said he and Smith exchanged text messages expressing hatred for the residents, shared pictures and videos of the abuse, described their assaults and encouraged continued abuse. Those abused had severe physical, intellectual or emotional disabilities, and required assistance with all activities of daily life, including bathing, using the bathroom, oral hygiene, feeding and dressing.
Dinell admitted he and Smith avoided detection by exploiting their one-on-one access to residents and “the fact that the victims were non-verbal and could not report the defendant’s alleged abuse,” according to a news release issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office Western District of Pennsylvania.
Dinell’s public defender on Thursday described his client as a reserved man who at the time of his actions was abusing alcohol to mitigate struggles with anxiety. Dinell issued an apology after hearing impact statements from the victim’s families.
More:Former McGuire Memorial workers face federal hate crime charges
“Zachary Dinell committed egregious assaults against some of our community’s most vulnerable members,” said U.S. Attorney Cindy Chung. “His victims could not speak up and were forced to suffer in silence. Hopefully, the significant sentence imposed will bring some measure of closure to the victims’ families and serve as a reminder that this office will continue to seek justice for victims of hate crimes.”
U.S. District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan sentenced Dinell to the maximum 17 years allowed by Dinell’s October plea deal. Dinell is already serving up to 31 years in Fayette County state prison for related convictions. As part of his sentence, he’s prohibited from seeking employment following his release from prison at any facility that provides care for juveniles and/or people with disabilities.
McGuire Memorial leadership fired both men and cooperated with the federal investigation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Dinell worked at the facility from June 2016 through his June 2018 termination. Smith was hired in May 2015 and terminated in September 2017.
This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Former McGuire Memorial worker sentenced to 17 years for patient abuse
