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Sentencing Delayed For Nursing Home Workers

POSTED: 8:17 pm PDT October 10, 2008
UPDATED: 8:53 pm PDT October 10, 2008

Sentencing was delayed Friday for two Portland nursing home workers who were found guilty of contributing to a patient's death.

Jurors found a supervisor and a certified nursing assistant guilty of contributing to the death of patient Linda Ober, 60, in October 2006.

Sentencing for the supervisor, Suzanne Ruddell, 59, was delayed because the woman's lawyer requested a pre-sentence investigation, but it is likely she will do some time in prison.

Cammy Nye, 53, will definitely be getting some jail time.

Relatives of the woman who died said they have yet to hear any remorse.

"I get a call from the hospital after she's died, and it was the most heartbreaking thing in the world to go through," the victim's daughter Sara Cunningham said.

Two years later, Cunningham still believes her mother's death was totally preventable, and a jury agreed.

Earlier this week, a jury found two nursing home workers guilty of contributing to the death of Linda Ober, 60.

Ober was a patient at the Gateway Care and Rehab Center in northeast Portland when Nye was moving her and dropped her on the floor, breaking both her legs.

Ober wasn't taken to a hospital for five days, despite her cries for help.

When she finally went in for surgery, she suffered complications and died the next day.

Ober's daughters both read statements about their grief and hope for sentencing.

"When she died, so did a part of me," Ober's daughter Heather Butcher said.

Ruddell sat quietly pending her sentencing delay, but Nye talked to the judge and asked him to spare her from jail time.

"I feel just terrible about what happened with Miss Ober. I've shed many tears," Nye said.

In the end, the judge sentenced Nye to 30 days in jail, 700 hours of community service and three years probation.

"They deserve what they have coming, absolutely. My mom cannot stand here today and show us that it's all right. She's gone," Butcher said.

Nye will begin serving her jail sentence right away, and Ruddell will be back in court for her sentencing Dec. 12.

Sentencing Delayed For Nursing Home Workers

Related: Jury Convicts Pair In Adult-Care Death

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