AHDC employee charged with abuse of 2

A certified nursing assistant in Arkadelphia faces felony charges after state investigators say she abused a pair of residents at the Arkadelphia Human Development Center.

Alissa D. Rivera, 27, is charged with two counts of abuse of an endangered or impaired person. One of the counts is a felony charge as the alleged abuse caused injury to the victim.

Rivera is no longer employed with AHDC.

Rivera became the target of an investigation by the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office — Medicaid Fraud Control Unit when the agency received a report from the ADHC in February 2024.

A probable cause affidavit filed with the Clark County Prosecutor’s Office identifies the victims by their initials. The affidavit indicates that both abuse incidents occurred in early February. Both victims are diagnosed with a “profound” intellectual disability, and one of the victims, a 73-year-old, is wheelchair-bound.

It’s the younger resident, aged 46, who suffered a broken ankle as a result of the alleged abuse.

Special Agent Laura Glover reviewed surveillance footage that reportedly shows Rivera enter a dining room and shove the resident, causing her to fall backwards and strike her head on a wall; it was the backwards fall that apparently caused a trimalleolar fracture to her ankle. The video shows Rivera in an apparent state of hysterical laughter between the time she allegedly shoved the resident until she checked on her, according to the affidavit.

It was then that Rivera allegedly kicked the resident in the buttocks multiple times, while she lay on the floor, to remove her from the dining room. Audio from the footage recorded the victim screaming outside the dining room before Rivera is seen kicking her, again in the back, into the dining room. It was then that Rivera allegedly forced the resident to her feet and allowing her to fall to the ground when she didn’t stand.

The affidavit notes that Rivera later falsified a report to deflect her own physical involvement in the resident’s injuries.

A separate affidavit filed in the indictment says Rivera shoved another resident, bound by a wheelchair, into a dining room table and struck her. The allegations contained within that information led to a misdemeanor charge.

9E Prosecuting Attorney Dan Turner filed formal charges based on the affidavits. Also representing the state in the matter will be Gabrielle Michele Davis-Jones, a deputy prosecutor with the AG’s office in Little Rock.