The former managers of an unlicensed Midvale care facility for vulnerable patients pleaded guilty to neglect charges Thursday, more than two years after county health officials shut down the facility because of unsafe and unsanitary conditions.
Jorge Gustavo Gonzalez Sr. pleaded guilty to two counts of exploitation of a vulnerable adult, a third-degree felony; and two counts of neglect of a vulnerable adult, a class A misdemeanor. His son, Ignacio Gonzalez-Villarruel, pleaded guilty to two counts of neglect of a vulnerable adult.
The father and son both received a suspended sentence. Gonzalez was sentenced to three years of probation, and his son received two years of probation, court records indicate. The Utah attorney general’s office, which investigated the case, said in a news release that the men will also be ordered to pay back rent payments collected from residents in January 2022 “despite safety and health violations.”
(Google Maps) The former site of Evergreen Place, an unlicensed care facility in Midvale that officials shut down in 2022, citing unsafe and unsanitary conditions, seen in 2022. The owners of the now-shuttered facility were charged with abuse, neglect and exploitation charges on Wednesday, June 21, 2023.
The men were charged last summer in 3rd District Court after the county in January 2022 shuttered Evergreen Place, formerly located at 163 E. 7800 South in Midvale.
Bedbugs had infested the facility, inspectors found, and the basement had been flooded with raw sewage that had backed up into the upstairs living quarters, according to charging documents. Its furnace was also broken and it had no smoke alarms or fire extinguishers.
The father and son allowed other “unsafe and neglectful circumstances to continue for at least the better part of a year” as they collected between $1,000 to $1,400 in rent a month from each of its 17 residents, prosecutors argued in charging documents.
The charges came days before the Disability Law Center released an 11-page report that detailed the experience of a former Evergreen Place resident, who died by suicide after Evergreen Place was shut down and the man was moved to another care center.
The report argued that state agencies that regulate such care centers are failing to keep vulnerable residents safe.
Gonzalez and Gonzalez-Villarrue’s attorney declined to comment on the case.
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