Sandra Calixte Lucien held on $25,000 bail
STOUGHTON, Mass. — A Stoughton woman has been arrested and charged in what police have called “one of the worst cases of elder abuse” they have seen.
Police said on Feb. 21 they found Marie Bois Belfort, 75, in a basement bedroom with the thermostat off and the thermometer reading 51 degrees.
“She as in a small basement room that could be equated to a cell,” said Stoughton police Deputy Chief Rob Devine.
The woman had bed open sores and was dehydrated and malnourished, police said.
“Probably some of the worst that we have seen. These officers have been here for 20, 25 years and a lot of them have never seen conditions like what this woman was being kept in,” Devine said.
The woman’s caregiver, Sandra Calixte Lucien, a 48-year-old registered nurse from Stoughton, was arrested. The woman was found in the basement of Lucien’s Paradise Circle home.
Lucien said she took Belfort in because no one else would care for her, police said.
Belfort had a home health aide paid to come to the house three times a week. Caramel Duberson, an aide assigned to Belfort working for Best of Care, told police she complained to her superiors and asked to be taken off the job. Best of Care did not comment on the case Thursday.
“This is the worst of the worst because you are stealing someone’s dignity and, in this case, endangering their life,” Devine said.
Lucien was charged with permitting serious injury to an elder. She posted $25,000 bail and was released.
According to court papers, Lucien is Belfort’s niece. Police are not certain if the two are actually related.
The 75-year-old woman remains hospitalized at Good Samaritan Hospital.
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