Prosecutors in Broward County on Thursday dismissed all charges against two nurses and a nurse supervisor who were at the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills when nine residents died from heat exposure after Hurricane Irma knocked out power to the nursing home’s air conditioning system in 2017.
The facility’s administrator, Jorge Carballo, remains charged with nine counts of aggravated manslaughter.
The state had accused nursing supervisor Sergo Colin in all nine of those deaths, but announced all charges would be dropped against him and also against nurses Althea Meggie and Tamika Miller.
Get South Florida local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC South Florida newsletters.
Meggie had been charged with two counts and Miller with six counts of aggravated manslaughter, and each faced two charges of evidence tampering for what the state claimed were falsified medical records.
Assistant state attorney Chris Killoran told Judge John Murphy Thursday only that the charges against the three were dismissed; he did not not say why.
As many as 13 patients died in the days after the lack of air conditioning caused temperatures to soar in the nursing home, which has 141 residents.
Local
Prosecutors eventually attributed nine of those deaths to aggravated manslaughter — causing the death of an elderly or disabled person through culpable negligence.
Carballo, 64, who was not present when the first the patients began dying on September 12, 2017, faces up to 30 years in prison on each count if convicted at trial, now set for November 7 with jury selection set to begin October 18.
The Category 4 storm hit on September 10, knocking out power from a transformer that fed the home’s air conditioning system. Power to the other systems in the building remained on.
Calls to FPL, then-Gov. Rick Scott and emergency managers failed to get the situation resolved until after dead or dying patients were being evacuated from the building on September13.
Fans and portable air conditioning systems were brought in, but they failed to substantially cool the rooms and hallways, especially on the second floor where all but one of the dead was housed.
The state revoked the facility’s license, a decision upheld by the courts.
