BRUNSWICK COUNTY — The director of Shallotte Assisted Living and four employees, including her husband, have been charged following a joint State Bureau of Investigation and Shallotte Police Department investigation.
Additional charges and arrests are expected as the SBI probe continues. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) suspended the 80-bed facility’s license to operate following its own investigation under an emergency decision issued Wednesday.
Shallotte Assisted Living has a history of being fined by the state for a variety of safety and financial violations in addition to some disturbing incidents resulting from the facility’s failure to appropriately supervise its residents.
DHHS, Brunswick County Department of Social Services, and Trilium Health Resources are assisting displaced residents evacuated under the state suspension order. Some staff and residents remain at the facility as of Thursday morning as it continues to evacuate.
“Hopefully by the end of the day everyone should be relocated,” Shallotte Police Chief Scott Branning said Thursday.
Recent inspections and DHHS’s suspension notice indicate Shallotte Assisted Living had a pattern of neglecting its senior residents, failing to protect them from harm, in violation of numerous state laws. This includes § 131D-21, a state statute that protects senior residents’ rights in adult care homes. Recent criminal arrests do not appear to directly relate to the facility’s apparent negligence of residents.
Charges
Tammie and her husband Earl Bullard were both arrested Friday, Feb. 21. Both have been charged with felony possession of a stolen firearm, misdemeanor possession of marijuana, and misdemeanor possession of marijuana paraphernalia. Tammie Bullard was additionally charged with felony possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and had outstanding warrants for two counts of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud and two counts of trafficking in opioids by possession. She was given a $40,000 bond.
Earl Bullard was charged with violating a domestic violence protective order and given a $10,000 bond. Though both were arrested Friday, they appear to have bonded out, as neither appears on the Brunswick County inmate registry.
Three other employees of Shallotte Assisted Living were all charged with obstruction of justice: Sandy Dossie, Tabitha Burgess, and Brittanie Corder. Dossie was arrested Wednesday.
Branning said the two individuals charged but not yet arrested, Burgess and Corder, have indicated to SPD they intend to turn themselves in.
The investigation
The investigation began Jan. 3, when the facility’s director, Tammie Bullard, reported a break-in. Bullard told the Shallotte Police Department someone broke a window and stole pills from a medical cart, according to an SPD incident report.
Approximately 3,700 dosage units of controlled substances were reported missing, including 420 half-milligram Xanax pills, 450 Oxycodone pills of varying strengths, 720 lorazepam pills, 840 Klonopin pills of varying strengths, 10 fentanyl patches, 570 50mg Tramadol pills, 60 15mg doses of morphine, and 60 100mg doses of the sedative Lyrica. A laptop and various keys were also reported missing.
Shallotte Police Department reached out to the SBI, initiating an investigation that culminated Friday. DHHS began its own investigation Feb. 19.
Narratives on the SPD incident reports are redacted, presumably because SBI is continuing its investigation. An SBI spokesperson said the bureau could not answer additional questions.
Shallotte Assisted Living
Shallotte Assisted Living is one of four licensed adult care facilities in Brunswick County.
In its most recent March 2019 inspection, Brunswick County DSS rated the facility zero stars out of four, with a 66 point rating out of 100. One December 2018 inspection rated the facility with zero stars and 63 points — a second the same month rated the facility with one star and 73 points; it received zero stars and 68 points in March 2018, with between two and three stars in previous inspections between March 2015-June 2017.
A 2017 DHHS Statement of Deficiencies report of the facility contains troubling findings. A resident with dementia left unsupervised ingested rubbing alcohol and was later treated for alcohol poisoning after he was found with an empty bottle. This occurred as a result of the facility’s failure to supervise the resident, who was known to wander and had a history of ingesting soap, hand sanitizer, shampoo, and other non-food items, according to the report.
This resident described in the report also had a history of “sexually inappropriate” behaviors and would enter other resident’s rooms and enter their beds, violating their privacy, with limited supervision, according to the report. Another resident with a pattern of aggressive behaviors, including hitting other residents, was not adequately supervised to prevent harm to other patients.
These findings resulted in the facility paying a $2,000 fine in 2018. Also that year, the facility paid $8,000 in fines for failing to dispense personal funds of a patient following their death in a timely manner. And in October 2019, it was fined $9,000 for the “intentional” obstruction of fire exit doors.
Additional reports related to this year’s findings will be forthcoming, according to DHHS spokesperson Kelly Haight.
Send tips and comments to Johanna Ferebee Still at [email protected]
