Man guilty of bending back fingers of a frail veteran
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A former personal support worker was convicted Friday of bending back the fingers of a veteran in his 90s with dementia after he soiled himself.
Rey Lozada, 60, who was fired from the Perley and Rideau Veterans Health Centre, was acquitted of a second count of assault in the May 2011 incident.
The court heard that feces were everywhere and Lozada tried three times to help the elderly man — who wouldn’t cooperate — so he got a female colleague to help.
She testified she tried to coax him to the toilet but as she was helping him she saw Lozada bend back the three middle fingers of one of his hands as the elderly man tried to hit him with the other.
She then testified that she saw Lozada grab the man’s face and saw a look of “shock and fear” on his face.
Judge Heather Perkins-McVey acquitted Lozada of the second alleged assault because she was “troubled” it wasn’t in the co-worker’s initial report.
But the judge rejected Lozada’s testimony that his colleague is just an “attention-seeker,” angry he’d stopped giving her rides, instead finding the woman had no reason to lie.
“I find Mr. Lozada’s evidence was replete with ...contradictions,” Perkins-McVey said.
“Much of his evidence was simply unbelievable.”
A sentencing hearing is set for Jan. 31.
Twitter: @ottawasun_megan
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