No action taken against nursing home director in Harvey incident

Published 10:55 am Monday, February 4, 2019

A Jefferson County grand jury took no action in the case of the director of Lake Arthur Place Nursing and Rehabilitation who was at the spotlight of controversy during Tropical Storm Harvey.

A spokesperson with the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office said Jeff Rosetta’s case was presented to a grand jury last week and that the grand jury declined to take action.

Rosetta was the focus of the spotlight when TV news crews entered the flooded nursing home where some residents were in their rooms, some in hallways lying in beds and some in wheelchairs with their lower extremities submerged in the floodwaters, according to the search warrant for the facility.

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Port Arthur Police Det. Mike Hebert and Det. T. Cater arrived at the facility by boat and a confrontation followed between Rosetta and the officers. Rosetta said he did not believe the men were peace officers.

Rosetta, according to the document, said residents couldn’t be evacuated by the people who arrived by boat to help, saying the National Guard was en route. Hebert had no knowledge of the National Guard being deployed to the location.

Several civil cases against Rosetta and Senior care Centers LLC remain pending.