A 72-year-old Village of Bonnybrook man has been arrested on a felony charge, accused in an incident with an Alzheimer’s patient.
Gerald R. Belanger was arrested Wednesday at his home on Culpepper Way on a charge of battery of a person 65 years of age or older.
The incident occurred Oct. 27 at Serenades Memory Care Assisted Living on Parr Drive in The Villages.
Staff relayed to law enforcement that the victim had been found naked from the waist down, according to an arrest report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office. However, the victim was unable to relate details when interviewed by law enforcement several hours after the incident occurred.
Belanger told investigators that the victim had urinated on herself and he was trying to change her underwear, the arrest report indicated.
Belanger had previously been arrested at the facility in April, the arrest report indicated. However, Sumter County court records indicate that case was dropped in May. The case was reopened Aug. 20. It appears that Belanger had been ordered to take a guardianship education course, but that an extension had been granted for the time in which he was to take the course.
The arrest report from the April incident at the memory care facility indicated Belanger entered the facility intoxicated and tried to forcibly remove the victim from the premises.
After Wednesday’s arrest, Belanger was being held without bond at the Sumter County Detention Center.