Two former registered nurses, caught on camera having sex in front of their patient, a 98-year-old grandmother in her La Jolla home, pleaded guilty Monday to committing felony elder abuse. They face up to one year in jail when they are sentenced March 30 before San Diego Superior Court Judge Timothy Walsh. Both remain free on $200,000 bond.
The licenses of both men, Russell Olvena Torralba, 42, of Bonita, and Alfredo Villagarcia Ruiz, 43, of San Diego, were revoked in July of 2013 by the state. The men are no longer caring for patients.
Court records show the District Attorney’s office will not seek more than one year in jail for both men. The maximum sentence is four years in state prison.
The family of the grandmother had hidden security cameras installed in 2011, following which they discovered the nurses were engaging in sexual acts in front of the grandmother. The videos somehow got leaked onto the Internet.
Both men had a 5½-day preliminary hearing last August and were ordered to stand trial on multiple elder abuse counts, some including neglect of patients in a facility Torralba ran in Mira Mesa. The judge tossed out allegations they had molested the grandmother.
The grandmother could not speak following a stroke, and she could only move her left arm in what her daughter testified was distress.
In his guilty plea, Torralba signed a statement saying he “inflicted unjustifiable mental suffering upon an elder.” He also pleaded guilty to elder abuse as a misdemeanor involving care of another patient in 2010 in his Mira Mesa facility, which he no longer owns. – Neal Putnam