gavel on desk

A Kansas assisted living community is facing a $1.5 million wrongful death lawsuit alleging “grossly wanton and negligent” actions in failing to conduct a timely background check on an employee now charged with raping a resident.

The complaint against The Mapleton in Andover, KS, alleges that a “brutal rape” of a 68-year-old former resident by a former certified nursing assistant with a history of sexual assaults was a contributing factor in the woman’s death in August.

According to the complaint, the resident’s diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia “robbed her of her ability to advocate for herself, meet her basic hygienic needs or feed herself.” She moved into the community in March 2020.

That summer, according to the lawsuit, the woman’s daughter contacted the Kansas Department of Aging and the Andover Police Department, where she filed an abuse and neglect case. The daughter pursued the action after a hospice nurse noticed that the resident’s face and pubic region had been shaved and the facility did not provide answers to questions about who accessed her mother’s room. The daughter moved her mother to another senior living community in early August. The woman died Aug. 25.

The complaint states that Kim Dobbin, operator of the community, eventually told the police that an employee, Muhammed Qadeer Akram, admitted to shaving the resident “to make it easier to keep her clean.” The state investigator recommended the woman undergo a sexual assault exam, which revealed Akram’s DNA. He now is criminally charged with raping a mentally deficient victim.

The state investigation also revealed that Mapleton did not check Akram’s criminal background until June 24, six months after he began caring for residents. A state cursory background check revealed that Akram had a 2005 rape allegation and a 2006 sexual battery charge, and that the Kansas Board of Healing Arts ruled in 2008 that he should have limited interactions with female patients after “allegations of sexual misconduct.” In 2009, Akram’s petition to terminate the limitations on his license was granted by the board.

Akram also previously had been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit food stamp fraud, food stamp fraud and wire fraud. 

The family is seeking a $1.5 million judgment for compensatory and punitive damages, and requests a jury trial.

The Mapleton did not respond to requests for comment by the publication deadline.