Daughter Wants Stronger Screening After Mother Accuses Caretaker Of Rape

<p>A Tulsa woman is speaking out after prosecutors say a nursing home employee raped her elderly mother.</p>

Monday, April 17th 2017, 10:58 pm

By: News On 6


A Tulsa woman is speaking out after prosecutors say a nursing home employee raped her elderly mother.

What happened to Kelly Brasfield’s mother will likely stay with the family forever, but she's now working to make sure it never happens again.

Wesley Harrison is in jail with half-a-dozen rape charges against him, but Brasfield said it’s not enough.

"It's very difficult for her to talk about. It stresses her greatly," she said.

Brasfield's mom was living at Forest Hills Care and Rehab Center in Broken Arrow, undergoing physical therapy, between December 2015 and January 2016. She became the first of several victims to come forward and accuse Harrison of rape.

Harrison now faces five rape charges, one sexual battery and one rape-by-instrumentation charge.

Brasfield's not sure her mom will ever recover.

"It's mostly anger, and then followed by sadness. Sadness that the mom I once knew and loved is gone," she said.

She's now working on a project she hopes will go nationwide by contacting lawmakers to create an Adult Caregiver Misconduct Registry - a database of elderly abuse claims found to be true.

"Employers can go and use this tool to pre-screen their employees to see if anything has happened in the past that may not be caught on a background check or a resume," Brasfield said.

Forest Hills said the facility thoroughly vetted Harrison with background checks before hiring him, but Brasfield said her proposal would make the vetting process much stronger.

"It will never fix what happened, but if we can prevent someone else's family from experiencing what we have, then it would be a worthwhile cause. Why not try," she said.

Harrison's next court date is in October.

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