Sentencing hearing rescheduled to May 28 in elder abuse case

Justin Strawser, The Daily Item, Sunbury, Pa.
·2 min read

May 3—LEWISBURG — The 19-year-old former resident aide at Heritage Springs Memory Care who pleaded guilty in February to extensive elder abuse will be sentenced later this month.

Madison Laine Cox, of Pinchtown Road, Montgomery, is scheduled to be sentenced at 10 a.m. May 28 in front of Union County Judge Michael Piecuch. Cox pleaded guilty in February to 12 misdemeanors: one count of criminal conspiracy to commit abuse of a care-dependent person and 11 counts of abuse of a care-dependent person.

Piecuch last month rejected a plea deal because the amount of proposed jail time and supervision was not appropriate to reflect the number of victims

Cox and an unidentified then-17-year-old male resident assistant are accused of taking numerous nude and demeaning photographs and videos of 17 residents between December 2022 and April 2023 at Heritage Springs Memory Care, 327 Farley Circle, Lewisburg. Cox and the male, who turned 18 in August, allegedly posed with patients in the shower or on the toilet, took pictures of patients who had defecated themselves or had fallen to the ground and took videos of themselves demeaning or harassing individuals, according to court documents filed by Buffalo Valley Regional Police.

They allegedly sent those records to each other, shared them on the phone app Snapchat, and showed them to classmates at a school, police said.

In November, the unidentified male was adjudicated in Union County Court on 17 of the 34 counts and his disposition was transferred to his home county in Lycoming County. Adjudication for a juvenile is the functional equivalent of being found guilty in an adult criminal procedure. A disposition hearing in juvenile court is akin to a sentencing hearing in adult court.

The juvenile was sentenced on April 11 in front of Lycoming County Judge Ryan M. Tira, but the judge would not release the sentencing results for the defendant. Due to being charged as a minor, the court proceedings are not open to the public and The Daily Item does not print the names of juvenile defendants unless charged as an adult.