‘She left me for dead’: Las Vegas woman indicted on elder abuse charges

Las Vegas police were called to an alleged unlicensed group home and found residents who had been left without food for days, with one man lying in his own feces.

Thomas Manzi, 58, testified during a grand jury hearing last month that the home’s operator, 63-year-old Beverly Senior, was supposed to provide care for him and other residents. But she never sent help when he called to say he was ill with what he later learned was kidney failure, Manzi said.

“She left me in the room,” Manzi said, according to transcripts of the hearing. “To my understanding she left me for dead.”

Senior was indicted last month on 18 counts of abuse or neglect of an older or vulnerable person, court records show.

She was arrested Jan. 28, 2021, after police were called to the alleged unlicensed group home at 3070 Carnelian Street, near East Desert Inn Road and McLeod Drive.

Paul Adras, who represented Senior during a court hearing on Thursday, declined to comment on the allegations.

Senior is on intensive supervision after she was released from custody on her own recognizance shortly after her arrest, court records show.

District Judge Mark Gibbons ordered Senior back to court next month.

During the June 21 grand jury hearing, Metropolitan Police Department Detective Dean Ludwig testified that officers found eight residents living in the home, some unable to get around by themselves.

Senior told police that she recruited homeless people to live in the home from various agencies in the valley, including the Courtyard Homeless Resource Center operated by Las Vegas.

Jace Radke, a spokesman for the city, said Thursday that the Courtyard has not referred anyone to Senior since police began investigating the Carnelian Street home, which is now closed.

The detective testified that unlicensed group homes are typically marketed as independent living homes, which are not regulated by the state.

But police consider a residence an unlicensed group home when the people living there require a higher level of care for daily life, such as needing someone to give them food, change their clothes or help them move out of bed, Ludwig said.

All of the residents at the Carnelian Street home went to a clinic where Senior worked, and a nurse practitioner prescribed them mental health care medication, one of Senior’s co-workers testified.

The nurse practitioner, Francis Raini, testified that Senior still worked at the clinic, called 4Life Mental Health.

When reached by phone on Thursday, Raini declined to answer questions about Senior.

Police were called to the Carnelian Street address after receiving a report from the state’s Adult Protective Services that the residents were living in “terrible conditions,” the detective testified.

Manzi, who lived in the garage with another man, was found lying on the ground, partially clothed, lying in his own feces “with bodily fluids everywhere,” the detective said. Manzi testified that Senior asked him to live in the house while working as a maintenance man and helping the other residents, but Manzi said Senior never paid him.

Manzi said he cooked for residents, gave out medicine and provided security for the house. He was also responsible for keeping the kitchen pantry locked at night while a resident slept in the kitchen.

William Thorn, 70, testified that in June 2020, he was staying at a homeless shelter set up at Cashman Center during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic. But as the shelter was about to close, Thorn said the city placed him in the home on Carnelian Street, according to the court transcripts.

Thorn said he is blind and uses a wheelchair because his left arm is paralyzed, and another resident at the home had to help him bathe and use the restroom. Thorn testified that he “rarely had food” while staying at the house.

After Manzi fell ill, Senior and her co-worker, Gloria Owens, visited the home. Owens testified that the home smelled “horrible,” a resident told her that he had not eaten in three days and that she tried to persuade Senior to call the police because of conditions at the house.

Owens said she later called Adult Protective Services to report the home. Once police were called to the house, Owens said she left her job at the clinic.

“I left that same day, and I never came back,” she testified.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.