Hillcrest nursing home sued over sexual assault of 88-year-old resident

An 88-year-old woman who was sexually assaulted in her Hillcrest nursing home in October has filed a $50 million lawsuit against the facility operators, alleging they failed to provide proper security and staffing to keep her and other residents safe.

The suit claims that employees at Balboa Nursing & Rehabilitation Center routinely left the back door open, which allowed a man to slip inside, walk past a nursing station and reach the second floor where the victim lived.

Staff heard the woman and her roommates scream for help and saw a naked man dash out of the building. Using DNA evidence, San Diego police arrested Lusean Arline, 49, about a week later. He has pleaded not guilty to charges related to the incident.

"This is a terribly shocking case, one that is most unfortunate and violates our trust we place in these facilities when we place a loved one in their care," the woman's attorney, William Berman, said Tuesday.

"This could have happened to any female resident at Balboa."

He said the woman's arm was broken in the assault, but she is recovering and now living in a different skilled nursing home.

Calls to Balboa and its parent company, Providence Group Inc. in Utah, for comment on the lawsuit were not immediately returned on Tuesday.

The state Department of Public Health opened an investigation of Balboa within a week of the assault and issued findings that the facility failed to maintain safe and secure premises, Berman said.

"They acted very swiftly in their investigation," he added.

The lawsuit, filed in San Diego Superior Court on Dec. 19 by the victim and her daughter, seeks $50 million in punitive and compensatory damages against Balboa and Providence for alleged neglect and breach of a general duty of care toward the victim.

The suit claims that employees would leave the building's back door open on a regular basis, despite problems of loitering and trespassing at the building and in the neighborhood. The facility failed to hire sufficient security and staffing to keep costs low, the suit alleges.

San Diego police and prosecutors have said that about 3 a.m. on Oct. 27, a man slipped into the 4-story facility on Fourth Avenue near Walnut Avenue and sexually assaulted a resident on the second floor. The man fled, naked, leaving evidence with traces of his DNA, authorities said.

On Nov. 4, investigators arrested Arline in connection with the sexual assault.

He had been released from prison on Oct. 10 after a conviction for following two women and exposing himself. Chula Vista police jailed him soon after on a misdemeanor drug paraphernalia charge. He got out of jail on Oct. 24, three days before the assault in Hillcrest, Deputy District Attorney Scott Pirrello said in a court hearing.

At a Dec. 16 preliminary hearing, Arline was ordered to stand trial on charges of assault with intent to commit rape during a residential burglary, burglary and elder abuse causing great bodily injury. His bail was set at $2 million. Prosecutors dropped an original charge of forcible rape, Pirrello said.

Arline faces life in prison if convicted of all the charges.

Arline is scheduled to return to court on the criminal case on Jan. 8. Berman said it could take six months to get to trial in the civil case.

The state's online records show Balboa Healthcare, Inc. as the legal name of the 194-bed nursing facility since 2005.

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