Force Feeding Charges at Maple Grove Nursing Home

A man was charged Thursday for allegedly abusing a vulnerable adult by forcing her to eat.

After a four month investigation into the Homeward Bound Group Home in Maple Grove, the Minnesota Health Department concluded abuse of a 56-year-old resident took place. And what happened here shocked even the most experienced officers.

According to authorities, the employee placed his hand on the victims head and force fed her. He was also seen retelling the story to co-workers afterward and laughing about what he had just done.

According to a criminal complaint, Alemayehu Seboka Abdi forced the woman with mental retardation and cerebral palsy to eat.

After nodding she did not want food, Abdi allegedly took the woman outside on a cold day in only her shirt, he then pushed her head back, forced heaping spoonfuls of food into the clients mouth, then let her head go allowing it swing forward all this to a woman with swallowing difficulties who needs to take small bites to eat.

Police say all of this was caught on cell phone video by a co-worker.

In her interview with the Health Department the 56-year-old victim indicated she was upset, scared and angry over the incident that took her a week to get over feeling sad and scared. Homeward Bound opened in 1973, with 17 sites in Hennepin County.

The CEO says to his knowledge no worker has ever been charged with neglect. He adds, “we do believe this was an isolated incident. We do not tolerate illegal or inappropriate behavior in any of our homes. And we do not tolerate harassment in any of our homes.”