The elderly victim told police that she was watching a movie on television in her bedroom when a male staff member entered her room to give her medication. The woman invited the man to sit on the bed and watch the movie with her. The man, later identified as Merzwski, gave her narcotics and then penetrated the woman with his penis and ejaculated, according to court records.
“[The victim] said that she hadn’t had sex for 8 years and she felt like it hurt because she was essentially a virgin again and that she had never planned on having sex again,” according to the police report.
A week later, a nurse with the state Department of Health conducted a separate investigation and concluded, “based on a preponderance of evidence,” that a staff person at Edgewood had sexual intercourse with the victim. A sexual assault exam conducted five days after the assault indicated that the victim had a vaginal laceration that was “jagged and dark red.”
Two days after the assault, the victim was sent to the mental health unit of St. Luke’s and was kept there for three days. Meanwhile, no one at the hospital was told that Merzwski had already confessed to the police that he’d had sexual intercourse with the victim.
Several days later, the woman was sent back to Edgewood and the room where she had been raped. She was so distraught that she barricaded the door of her apartment with her electric scooter so that staff could not enter, according to court documents. Ultimately, the victim’s daughter moved her to an apartment in the Twin Cities.
Merzwski pleaded guilty in November to third-degree criminal sexual conduct. The woman is seeking punitive damages from Merzwski, Edgewood Vista and two administrators mentioned in the lawsuit.
