What's at stake?
In November, about a year after the incident, the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office filed the single misdemeanor charge of “battery on an elder or dependent adult” against the homecare worker, Joshua Lee Arden.
A 35-year-old man who worked at a home for disabled adults in Visalia has been charged with misdemeanor elder abuse after an employee said she saw him kick a resident in the stomach, breaking two ribs.
The resident died two days later and police launched an investigation, but an autopsy showed that he died of other causes.
In November, about a year after the incident, the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office filed the single misdemeanor charge of “battery on an elder or dependent adult” against the Visalia homecare worker, Joshua Lee Arden.
As is common in misdemeanor cases, Arden was not arrested and he voluntarily appeared in Tulare County Superior Court. He pleaded not guilty on Jan. 9. The judge ordered him to return for further proceedings, assigned the Public Defender to represent him and released him on his own recognizance.
The criminal complaint states that on Dec. 12, 2023, a fellow employee witnessed the defendant kicking Marco Corral, 56, who died on Dec. 14, 2023 at Kaweah Health hospital in Visalia.
Corral’s sister, Maria Corral Rocha of San Diego, said she would like to know why the case was not charged as a felony.
“His body tells the story of violence,” she said.
But “(a)fter reviewing the evidence including medical findings, the misdemeanor charge was the only charge warranted,” the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office said.
Misdemeanor offenses are punishable by up to a year in jail, fines and probation.
Early in 2024, the Tulare County Sheriff’s Department performed an autopsy on Corral’s body.
Corral “died as a result of complications of blunt force traumatic injury,” the Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. “Other contributing factors include chronic constipation, hypertensive [high blood pressure] and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, hemiparesis [weakening of one side of the body] and seizures. The manner of death is undetermined.”
Visalia police investigators were present at the autopsy. Despite the two broken ribs, the autopsy doctor “did not believe this injury could cause a significant shortening of life,” states a Visalia police report found in the court file.
Corral was an American citizen born and raised in Mexico City, where his American mother worked for the United States Embassy. Chickenpox invaded his brain as a child and to save his life, part of his brain was removed, leaving him with permanent disabilities.
Nevertheless, he learned to walk again, although with a limp, and became fully bilingual, his sister said. In his teens, his family moved him to central California for better care.
“He was a wise and enlightened soul” who was deeply loved, she said.
On Dec. 14, 2023, Corral Rocha, who lives in San Diego, got a call from a social worker that her brother had been taken by ambulance to Kaweah Health hospital in Visalia.
When she reached a hospital physician by phone, the physician said her brother had “coded” and the medical staff was trying to resuscitate him. Although shocked, she instructed the doctor, “Please do not resuscitate. Please let him die in peace.” She burst into tears.
She soon spoke by phone with the administrator of the care home, who told her she was not aware that Corral was sick or had been taken to the hospital, she said.
Yet it was only when a mortuary employee told her that “someone came forward and triggered an investigation” that she realized that something sinister must have happened, she said.
Following up on a tip about the case, Fresnoland reported on Corral’s death in June of last year. No criminal charges had been filed at that point.
But the state Department of Social Services, which regulates care homes for disabled adults, launched its own investigation into what went wrong at the group home where Corral lived.
On Dec. 16, 2024, one year after Corral’s death, the department said that it had fined the group home $500, and additional civil penalties “are pending and currently under review.”
“Staff failed to recognize signs/symptoms (including but not limited to leaking, abdominal pain/discomfort, not eating) of possible fecal impaction,” a report states.
The staff had noticed that a resident had darkening skin and poor vital signs yet didn’t call 911 right away and didn’t call the primary care physician, a report said. Instead, the staff cleaned him up and waited an hour for a shift change to take place.
After being taken unconscious to the hospital, Corral died about 45 minutes later, the report states. He had severe fecal compaction and fractured ribs, and his health had started to deteriorate two days before he died, the report states.
About a week after Corral died, a Visalia police officer visited the care home, known as People’s Care Damsen. An administrator told the officer that she had recently learned that Arden had assaulted Corral and had verbally harassed another resident. Arden had been placed on administrative leave, she told police.
The Corral case was then assigned to the violent crimes unit for a detective to look into. He interviewed a number of employees, including one who said she witnessed Arden kick Corral two days before he died.
Visalia homecare workers told the detective that Corral could be uncooperative and difficult to work with, the report states. He often had bouts of constipation that would be treated with suppositories and enemas, and would lie on the floor and not get up.
Two days before he died, Corral had laid on the floor of the bathroom and soiled himself, the report said. An employee helped him get onto the toilet seat but he was “leaking” and needed to be cleaned up so she went to get gloves. When she returned, he had fallen. She called Arden to help get Corral off the ground. Arden roughly grabbed Corral by the hair, then let go and Corral fell back. She told Arden to stop. Arden then stomped on Corral’s stomach 2 or 3 times, and when Corral rolled over, Arden kicked him in the back although with minimal force. Arden then left the room.
The detective interviewed Arden by phone, who denied any allegations of abuse.
Corral Rocha, a college professor who has a law degree and passed the state bar, said she would like to get a lawyer to file a lawsuit against the company that owns the facility her brother lived in.
“The language of corporations is money,” she said. “A million dollar verdict won’t help Marco but it might help Marco’s friends and other people’s friends and children. A judicial decision that holds them accountable would encourage them to take better care of the people they are entrusted with. That’s my purpose on this issue.”
The four-bed group home where Corral lived is located in a residential neighborhood in west Visalia.
People’s Care Damsen is a division of Redwood Family Care Network, based in Orange County, which operates several group homes for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Fresnoland succeeded in reaching a company employee who took a message by phone. The call was not returned.
Arden is due back in court on Feb. 5.
