Sieniarecki v. State, No. SC94800.

• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Florida
• Writing for the Court: LEWIS, J.
• Citation: 756 So.2d 68
• Parties: Theresa SIENIARECKI, Petitioner, v. STATE of Florida, Respondent.
• Decision Date: 27 April 2000
• Docket Number: No. SC94800.

756 So.2d 68

Theresa SIENIARECKI, Petitioner,
v.
STATE of Florida, Respondent

No. SC94800.

Supreme Court of Florida.

April 27, 2000.

756 So.2d 70

Richard L. Jorandby, Public Defender, and Joseph R. Chloupek, Assistant Public Defender, Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, West Palm Beach, Florida, for Petitioner

Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Celia Terenzio, Bureau Chief, and Ettie Feistmann, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, Florida, for Respondent.

LEWIS, J.

We have for review a challenge to the constitutionality of section 825.102(3), Florida Statutes (1997), which, in pertinent part, penalizes "[a] caregiver's [culpably negligent] failure or omission to provide [a] ... disabled adult with the care, supervision, and services necessary to maintain the ... disabled adult's physical and mental health, including, but not limited to, food, nutrition, clothing, shelter, supervision, medicine, and medical services that a prudent person would consider essential for the well-being of the ... disabled adult." The Fourth District Court of Appeal, in Sieniarecki v. State, 724 So.2d 626 (Fla. 4th DCA 1998), expressly declared the applicable provisions of chapter 825, Florida Statutes, to be valid. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(3), Fla. Const. For the following reasons, we uphold the statutory provisions involved, and approve the decision of the district court.

MATERIAL FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS BELOW

In this case, the evidence at trial demonstrated that petitioner, Theresa Sieniarecki, was the oldest of decedent's four children. Until approximately two weeks before her death, the petitioner's mother, Patricia Sieniarecki, lived with petitioner, petitioner's boyfriend, and two of petitioner's brothers in the family home. Mrs. Sieniarecki's husband (petitioner's father) died from lung cancer shortly after Mrs. Sieniarecki had undergone two hip surgeries, and while she was recovering in a rehabilitation facility.

Following her second hip surgery and her husband's death, the mother's disposition changed dramatically. She appeared to be despondent and disoriented. She would ask her younger son where her dead husband was, calling that son by his older brother's name. It appeared that she had "given up," and that she "wouldn't do anything." Although apparently physically able to walk, she now would not walk at all. The children never left their mother alone at home, because she sometimes needed help or food. Always a picky eater, she ate and drank so little that, at the time of her death, even though she was five feet, three inches tall, she weighed only sixty-eight pounds.

It was also during this time that the family home was subjected to foreclosure. The children helped their mother with the sale of the home, and, with the little money left over after paying off the mortgage debt, the family moved into two separate apartments. Before moving, the children discussed with whom Mrs. Sieniarecki was to live. The record reflects that it was decided that the mother would live with petitioner—who had completed the tenth grade, but did not work—because petitioner "was able to take care of her," whereas, the two brothers (one of whom was at work "a lot," while the other worked and attended school) would not have had "that much time to spend with her." The two brothers moved into an efficiency apartment. Petitioner, her boyfriend, and her mother moved into a two-bedroom apartment.

The apartment manager testified that, at the time petitioner and her boyfriend were making arrangements to move into the apartment, the manager asked whether Mrs. Sieniarecki, who "looked like she was very weak," would be able to reach an upstairs apartment. Petitioner's boyfriend indicated to him that Mrs. Sieniarecki would be carried up when the three of them moved in, and "would not ever be coming back down the stairs anymore."

756 So.2d 71

In fact, when the three of them did move in, petitioner's boyfriend carried Mrs. Sieniarecki up to the apartment, because she was "tired."

Since Mrs. Sieniarecki would not walk (even to the bathroom), she required adult diapers. Petitioner testified that she bathed her mother and changed her diapers. She testified that she had no help from others with these tasks. Although she brought her mother food and liquids, if she tried to persuade her mother to eat, Mrs. Sieniarecki would "take a bite and then she'd throw it," or she would just "leave it there to sit all night." While, on one hand, petitioner testified that she spent time with her mother, and, except when her brother came to visit "every once in a while," all the responsibility fell on her, she also stated that she did not know whether her mother ate what she brought her or not. She stated that she was her mother's sole provider, except when her brother brought chili dogs for her mother to eat.

The mother's previous mattress—which was filthy—was kept in a utility room by the front door of the apartment. The new mattress on the mother's bed was not covered with a bottom sheet, because the old sheets got "messed up," and petitioner "threw them out with the old mattress." Petitioner testified that her mother would get feces on her hands from the adult diapers, and then scratch her legs and face, and touch the wall. Petitioner testified that she cleaned up after her mother, but never noticed any diaper rash on her. She also stated that she never called anyone to obtain help, advice or medical care for her mother.

Mrs. Sieniarecki's children testified that, whenever it was suggested to their mother that she go to a doctor, the mother would yell, indicating her disagreement. Petitioner also testified that, if she suggested to her mother that she not smoke cigarettes, her mother would yell at her to bring cigarettes.

According to petitioner's testimony, at about 10 p.m. on the night before her mother died, petitioner put a new diaper on her, "because she was gross." At about midnight, her mother "bitched at me, she wanted water. She just yelled, Theresa, bring me some water." The next morning, at mid-morning, when petitioner went in to see her mother, she was dead. Police were called at about 11:50 a.m. that morning.

The detective who came to the scene found Mrs. Sieniarecki lying on the bare mattress with one sheet covering her. She was wearing nothing but a polo shirt, with one tennis shoe on her right foot. Her hair was disheveled and her body was smeared with feces. The mattress on which she was lying was filthy, soiled with urine and feces. He found feces smeared on the wall next to the bed.

Dr. Price, the physician who performed the autopsy (stipulated to be an expert in forensic pathology) testified regarding Mrs. Sieniarecki's condition and the cause of her death. Dr. Price indicated that she had no teeth, and that he found nothing other than bile in her stomach or digestive tract. Her eyes were deeply sunken in, indicative of severe dehydration. Her right foot was ulcerated in the heel area "clear down to the bone," and this decubitus ulcer was "covered by green pus." Her skin was reddened with external sores in the thigh and buttocks area, indicating antemortem irritation from feces or urine being left on her skin. Although in her fifties, Mrs. Sieniarecki appeared to be much older.

The cause of Mrs. Sieniarecki's death was, in Dr. Price's opinion, septicemia (an infection in her blood), occurring as a result of decubitus ulcers, a bladder infection and a vaginal infection. Dehydration and malnutrition contributed to the cause of death. Specifically, Dr. Price testified that Mrs. Sieniarecki's bladder was black, green and necrotic (indicating dead tissue), "almost falling apart if you handled it too harshly." The bladder had, in this case,

756 So.2d 72

folded over and caused a hole, or fistula, to develop between the vagina and the bladder itself. The vagina, too, was necrotic. The dead tissue in both organs "pretty much went through the full thickness of the wall where the vessels were" in Mrs. Sieniarecki's body. The infection not only involved her bladder and vagina, but had spread into her fat and abdominal cavity as well

PROCEEDINGS BELOW

After a jury trial, petitioner was found guilty of neglect of a disabled adult, pursuant to section 825.102(3), Florida Statutes (1997). That section provides in pertinent part:

(3)(a) "Neglect of an elderly person or disabled adult" means:

1. A caregiver's failure or omission to provide an elderly person or disabled adult with the care, supervision, and services necessary to maintain the elderly person's or disabled adult's physical and mental health, including, but not limited to, food, nutrition, clothing, shelter, supervision, medicine, and medical services that a prudent person would consider essential for the well-being of the elderly person or disabled adult; or

2. A caregiver's failure to make a reasonable effort to protect an elderly person or disabled adult from abuse, neglect, or exploitation by another person.

Neglect of an elderly person or disabled adult may be based on repeated conduct or on a single incident or omission that results in, or could reasonably be expected to result in, serious physical or psychological injury, or a substantial risk of death, to an elderly person or disabled adult.

. . . .

c) A person who willfully or by culpable negligence neglects an elderly person or disabled adult without causing great bodily harm, permanent disability, or permanent disfigurement to the elderly person or disabled adult commits a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.

...