KENNER, LA – On February 17, Kenner Police responded to a report of abuse to the infirmed. The victim is a 26-year-old who suffers from Cerebral Palsy, and lives with his mother because of his condition.
An officer reviewed the “nanny cam” footage from the home and saw the abuse on video. On both February 16 and 17, a caretaker, whom the mother hired through Cerebral Palsy of Greater New Orleans, can be seen on video physically striking her son who is bed ridden.
The officer then located, arrested and charged 39-year-old Patrick Bowden, of Kenner, with two counts of simple battery of the infirmed.
On February 19, 2020, the mother of the victim provided police with additional video going back as far January 2020, in which she observed extensive physical abuse of her son by Bowden.
Detective Jo Ann Gallagher was assigned the follow-up investigation. Detective Gallagher viewed only two days of video, February 14th and 15th, 2020, and noted ten separate incidents of physical abuse that Bowden inflicted to the victim. Incidents involved Bowden shoving the forehead of victim, twisting victim’s arm, slapping victim in face hard enough to where it could be heard by audible means, grabbing the victim by the neck and jerking his body up to the top of the bed.
Based just on the two days of video that were viewed by Detective Gallagher, she obtained an arrest warrant for Bowden for ten counts of cruelty to the infirmed. On Wednesday night, Bowden was arrested at his home in Kenner.
Bowden waived his rights and provided a statement admitting to the abuse. He admitted to abusing the victim since he began working there in September of 2019, that he basically abused the victim every shift he worked since starting, that he knew he was causing pain to the victim and that he was trained in the proper manner in which to treat individuals who suffered from Cerebral Palsy but that what he was doing was not how he was trained.
Bowden was asked why he did what he did and at one point claimed he suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) but denied ever being diagnosed clinically, nor could he provide why he thought or how he suffered with PTSD.
Considering that Bowden admitted he abused the victim every day that he worked since September 2019, it is expected that once all the video is reviewed there will be additional charges.
It is an ongoing investigation.
