Police have issued a warrant for a boarding home employee accused in the death of a resident who developed a fatal infection at the southeast Houston property after having his hands tied as punishment, according to court records.
The warrant identifies John Grant as an employee and resident of the Blessed Hands boarding home a facility that prosecutors have also linked to a Harris County home where authorities in September found dozens of people in deplorable conditions. As of Thursday, Grant has not been arrested.
The death — which medical examiner records have classified as a homicide — happened in May 2020 at a boarding home in the 5800 block of Shevers Street, where Grant lived and worked, documents show. A resident who briefly resided at the boarding home told police that he saw Grant use a “bunjee type cord to tie and restrain” a man, identified in court records as Clifton Barber, to a chair as punishment.
A week later, Barber died of sepsis “due to left wrist cutaneous abscess(es) associated with restraint,” records show.
The witness said Grant did this to Barber on two other occasions. He would untie him so that he could “rest at night,” investigators wrote in probable cause documents.
Another employee — described as an unlicensed caregiver — told police that he noticed that Barber was unwell the morning of his death and tried taking him to Ben Taub Hospital. The employee stopped and called 911 when Barber went into cardiac arrest.
“What happened with our complainant is unspeakable,” Kristina Roberts, head of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office Elder Abuse and Exploitation Section, said.
“These cases are being reported more and there’s been more and more attention to what’s going on in these homes,” Roberts continued, adding that family members are coming forward more often and law enforcement being better trained to tie employees to other operations.
Harris County Constable’s Office, Precinct 7, investigators said Grant was among the employees detained and released in September after a disturbing discovery at the 14000 block of Long Meadow Drive boarding home. There, police found 37 residents — most of whom were diagnosed with mental or physical disabilities. One resident, a 64-year-old man, died of natural causes at the home.
The witness at the Shevers home told authorities that he was later relocated to the Long Meadow Drive address and that he was among those rescued.
The discovery on Long Meadow Drive — located in the county — had prompted the Texas Attorney General’s Office and Social Security Administration to launch a criminal probe into the home. Authorities were also eying the home’s operator, Carroll Shelton Richardson, as a person of interest in that investigation.
Richardson has not been charged in connection to either of the boarding homes but Roberts said he remains under investigation.
nicole.hensley@chron.com
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Houston boarding home employee charged in death of resident - Houston Chronicle
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