Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin announced three long-term care (LTC) facility workers — two in Ocean County and one in Camden County — are facing pending criminal charges, including assault on an institutionalized elderly person, stemming from alleged mistreatment of people in their care. Joseph Robles, 23, of Tuckerton, and Maria Alcantara, 53, of Toms River, were named in a 10-count indictment returned by a State Grand Jury. The defendants pleaded not guilty. In a separate case in Cherry Hill, Simone Goldsboro, 34, of Camden, was indicted by the State Grand Jury on aggravated assault charges. Robles and Alcantara are suspected of neglect, criminal restraint, and assault of a long-term care facility patient in Ocean County, following an investigation by OIFP’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU).
The investigation found that between January 13 and January 15, 2023, at an Alzheimer’s care facility in Toms River, Robles and Alcantara, both facility employees, allegedly physically restrained and attempted to cause or caused bodily injury to a 93-year-old patient. They also allegedly failed to make required wellness checks, but noted in the patient’s records that she was checked every 30 minutes. A separate investigation of the Cherry Hill case, involving the conduct of defendant Simone Goldsboro, revealed that Goldsboro allegedly abused the victim, a patient in a residential nursing home where Goldsboro worked. The defendant is alleged to have sprayed the victim’s body and facial area with bleach, causing or attempting to cause serious bodily injury. Goldsboro is also alleged to have purposefully or recklessly injured the victim by roughly undressing her and pulling her hair.
