Dozen More Accuse Aide of Elder Abuse

By Elaine Jarvik and Pat ReavyDeseret Morning News

Utah.. A dozen more people are alleging elder abuse by a nurse's aide who was accused Wednesday of raping a resident of a Salt Lake City long-term care facility.

Jacob Mut Bolith Some of the new allegations "sound serious; they're similar type crimes," said Salt Lake City police detective Jared Wihongi about Jacob Mut Bolith, a certified nurse's aide who is being held without bail in the Salt Lake County Jail. Most of the complaints stem from his employment at other nursing homes in Salt Lake County, specifically South Salt Lake and Holladay, Wihongi said.

Bolith is accused of raping an 85-year-old woman living at Christus St. Joseph Villa on July 1, several weeks after losing his CNA license on charges of inappropriately touching a patient at Avalon Valley Rehabilitation Center last December. St. Joseph hired Bolith in December after first doing a criminal background check on him and consulting the CNA Registry, which at that time reported no negative findings.

The Utah Department of Health, which regulates CNAs, is not required to alert a facility when a nurse's aide is sanctioned. "We don't track employment on any of these folks, so we have no way of knowing where they're working," said health department spokesman Tom Hudachko about the 25,000 CNAs currently registered in Utah. Although the department could send out a system-wide alert to all care facilities, it doesn't do that either.

But that process may change

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