NEW CITY: Jersey couple sentenced for neglecting elderly woman; Malnourished victim was living in their boarding house

Journal News, The (Westchester County, NY)

Steve Lieberman

A New Jersey couple were sentenced yesterday for endangering the life of an 87-year-old woman who was found in January, covered with bed sores and malnourished, living alone in their Pearl River rooming house.

Michael Culhane was sentenced to six months in the county jail, while his wife, Maureen, was sentenced to 416 hours of community service on weekends. Both were placed on five years probation and their joint corporation was fined $5,000.

County Court Judge William Kelly sentenced the Culhanes as part of a plea agreement reached by the defense and prosecutors.

The elderly victim was found Jan. 29 by Pearl River firefighters in a locked room at Adare Manor, 118 South Middletown Road. The firefighters had responded to an alarm at the building triggered by a sprinkler pipe that had burst because of the frigid temperature inside.

The victim, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease, was found to have numerous pressure ulcers or bed sores, infection and dehydration from being left alone and not moved for weeks.

Michael and Maureen Culhane of 79 West Grand Ave., Montvale, pleaded guilty in September to a felony charge of first-degree endangering the welfare of a vulnerable elderly person.

Adare Manor, which was issued a county rooming house permit for this year after the building passed a Rockland Health Department inspection in December, was closed down after the woman was found. A facility for the elderly owned by the Culhanes at 79 W. Grand St. was shut down by New Jersey officials in September because of unsanitary conditions.

The woman found at Adare Manor had lived in the New Jersey facility for five years before being taken to the Pearl River house during the summer of 1999.

After she was found by the firefighters, she was taken to Nyack Hospital.

Yesterday, the Culhanes lawyer, Hollis Griffin, told Kelly that the couple had been undergoing financial problems and were looking to sell the building on Middletown Road. He said the couple did not act maliciously against the woman.

"They came to the United States and worked very hard and were a success story for immigrants,'' Griffin said. "Their financial pressures don't justify their conduct. I could not explain how they got into this.''

Staff Writer John Kryger contributed to this report