The rape of a 71 year-old woman at an assisted-living facility in has sparked an investigation and should trigger concern for those of us with family that type of facility or who may find ourselves living in that environment when we are elderly.

This is a serious matter; don't think it can't happen to you or your loved one. If the center is found deficient, and all factors lean toward that, the owners and operators should be punished.

Rape triggers probe of care facility

Posted on Tue, Jan. 15, 2008

BY DAVID OVALLE

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Darryl McGee, mentally retarded with a criminal past, was found naked last month inside the bedroom of a 71-year-old woman suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

''All I wanted was some [sex],'' he blurted out to Miami-Dade detectives, according to a police report.

The woman had been savagely raped, Miami-Dade police say, and McGee was charged with sexual battery on a mentally handicapped person.

McGee and his alleged victim shared this connection: They lived in the same wing at the Munné Center, a West Kendall assisted-living facility that touts itself as embracing feng shui and nurturing ``harmonious relationships among people, their environment and the Earth.''

The rape case has sparked a state investigation into the Munné Center -- McGee was in the process of getting kicked out -- and has highlighted a history of problems at the facility, 17250 SW 137th Ave. [More]