VALLEY CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – A jury found Gracious Weah guilty of Aggravated Assault causing permanent impairment and Reckless Endangerment on September 23rd, 2022 in Southeast Judicial District Court held in the Barnes County Courthouse.
According to a news release by the North Dakota Attorney General’s office, the evidence at the trial showed that Weah, a certified nurses aide, performed an improper, one-person lift of a resident of the Sheyenne Care Center resulting in severe and painful injuries to the resident on October 18th of 2020. The evidence also showed Weah failed to report the injury causing the resident to be untreated for more than 12 hours. The victim suffered a broken ankle and femur during this incident. The victim passed away on April 26th of 2021.
On Tuesday, November 15th, Weah was sentenced by Judge Jay Schmitz to 1 year and 1 day to the North Dakota Department of Corrections with credit for 54 days already served in the Barnes County jail. She will also be on supervised probation for 3 years once she’s released from prison. Judge Schmitz said a restitution hearing for Weah will be set at a later date.
During the sentence hearing, Karen Lietz the daughter of the victim, said the trauma from this incident doesn’t end for her or her family. She said it’s hard to believe someone could do this to her mother or anyone in an assisted living facility.
Gracious Weah responded by saying, I would not willfully hurt your mother, I did not hurt your mother. She said the wrong person was prosecuted for this incident.
Below is the criminal complaint from the State of North Dakota Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. The case was prosecuted by Marina Spahr, Assistant Attorney General for the State of North Dakota and Director of the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.