🚨NO WHITE SUPREMACISTS INVOLVED🚨
🚨NO ISLAMIC JIHADISTS INVOLVED🚨
KCRA 3 published August 12, 2025: Nursing home gets $225K in citations after employee assaults residents. A nursing home in Galt is accused of ignoring a major red flag when it hired a certified nursing assistant “with a known criminal history of abuse."
KCRA3 NBC News, Sacramento, CA local
written by Lysée Mitri
Tuesday August 12, 2025
GALT, Calif. — A nursing home in Galt is accused of ignoring a major red flag when it hired a certified nursing assistant “with a known criminal history of abuse,” according to records that KCRA 3 Investigates obtained from the California Department of Public Health (CDPH).
About six weeks after Rancho Seco Care Center hired Justin Atkinson, he was accused of sexually assaulting several of the elderly residents he was supposed to be helping.
And concerns about care at the nursing home did not end there.
“I'm horrified. These people are defenseless,” said Carole Herman, president and founder of Foundation Aiding the Elderly (FATE).
Sexual Assault Investigation
“When something pops up like this, it is alarming. And we put all our resources to it,” said Lt. Brian Azevedo with Galt Police.
Officers responded to Rancho Seco Care Center on January 24 after the nursing home reported allegations that an employee sexually assaulted a resident.
Police began with interviews, trying to talk to everyone living there.
“You're dealing with people that range in age from, you know, 50, 60, up to their 80s or 90s,” Lt. Azevedo said. “You're dealing with different physical impairments, different cognitive impairments.”
Detectives also interviewed Atkinson.
“During a review of the police report,” CDPH said it showed Atkinson confirmed he sexually assaulted six nursing home residents.
In court, Atkinson pleaded no contest to seven felonies, including sexual battery of a disabled person and lewd acts by a caretaker upon a dependent adult.
He is now serving nine years in prison. However, Atkinson is not the only one facing consequences.
State Regulators Fine Nursing Home
“Not only should the perpetrator be held accountable, but the people that hired him,” Herman said. “They knew that that person should not have been in that facility, and they allowed it.”
KCRA 3 Investigates obtained CDPH records that allege Rancho Seco Care Center knew Atkinson had a “criminal history of abuse” and hired him anyway.
A CDPH report states that a background check revealed that Atkinson pleaded guilty to a 2019 charge of "knowingly touching another person with the intent to injure, insult or provoke."
The nursing home's administrator, Chelsie Mott, “confirmed she was aware of CNA 1's previous charges and chose to hire him and stated, ‘... [CNA 1] explained it as a domestic abuse,’” according to CDPH.
“He should have never been hired,” Herman said.
Investigative Reporter Lysée Mitri went to Rancho Seco Care Center to ask Mott for an on-camera interview. Upon speaking, Mott told Mitri that she would check with legal first and then get back to her. Mott never followed up with a response to the interview request.
“They were responsible for placing those patients, very compromised patients, in harm's way,” Herman said.
CDPH alleges that Rancho Seco Care Center failed to protect the residents' right to be free from abuse, and that it then failed to thoroughly investigate after residents reported abuse.
In May, the state hit Rancho Seco with nine citations, totaling $225,000.
“I’ve never seen this many citations in this short period of time,” Herman said.
Additional Allegations of Federal Regulation Violations
Since the reports of sexual assault, CDPH has identified 26 more federal regulation violations, including more failures to prevent abuse. CDPH inspections detail multiple incidents of residents hitting each other, for example.
“I've seen the fights, yeah,” Triva Lewis said.
Her sister is a resident at Rancho Seco Care Center.
Lewis believes the place is understaffed, putting workers and residents at risk.
“You just don't know what's going to go on from one day to the next,” she said.
She worries about her sister often.
“She's developmentally and physically disabled.”
She is certainly not alone in her concerns. The number of complaints and reported incidents at Rancho Seco is four times higher than the statewide average so far this year, according to CDPH’s website.
“I don't sleep at night. I can't even tell you when I slept last. She is on my mind 24 hours because of her disability,” Lewis said.
As KCRA 3 Investigates spoke with Lewis on a public sidewalk outside the nursing home, Administrator Chelsea Mott approached with two other employees.
They said they came outside to see what was going on.
“They were asking me questions,” Lewis said.
“Yeah, we're just talking to her about her experience,” Mitri said.
This took place about a week after Mitri first introduced herself to Mott, informing her about the KCRA 3 News story and requesting an on-camera interview.
“Were you able to talk to your attorney?” Mitri asked.
“We have no comment still at this time,” Mott said.
She and the other employees then turned around and walked away.
Lewis said she plans to continue speaking up as an advocate for the residents at Rancho Seco Care Center.
“I'm going to keep fighting until something happens,” she said.
Lawsuit Against Nursing Home and Owners
Now, concerns extend beyond just Rancho Seco Care Center.
The California Attorney General is actually suing the nursing home and its parent company, Sweetwater Care.
The civil lawsuit in San Diego County Superior Court states that Sweetwater Care has engaged in "unlawful, unfair and fraudulent business practices," putting millions toward profits instead of using that money to meet minimum staffing levels required by law.
KCRA 3 Investigates reached out to Sweetwater Care and its owners, Aaron Chesley and James Gamett, for comment. No one responded.
In addition to that pending court case, Rancho Seco Care Center is taking CDPH to court to challenge the $225,000 in citations.
“CDPH abused its discretion and exceeded its authority” by issuing nine citations for one alleged violation, the nursing home alleges in court documents.
Rancho Seco states that the alleged violations did not occur and that, regardless, the incident in question did not meet the criteria for a Class A citation.
The nursing facility rejects the idea that “the alleged violation resulted in an imminent danger that death or serious harm to patients of a long-term health care facility would result therefrom or a substantial probability that death or serious harm to patients of a long-term health care facility would result therefrom.”
Rancho Seco Care Center will not have to pay any civil penalties until all appeals have been exhausted, and the outcome is decided in court.
