Whistleblower 9: In-Home Caregiver Accused Of Stealing From Patient

A Lincolnton woman said an in-home caregiver provided by the county stole thousands of dollars worth of jewelry from her.

Eyewitness News learned that same worker already had a criminal record for stealing. Now she wonders how something like that that could happen, so she called Whistleblower 9. Eyewitness News reporter Mark Becker spent the last two weeks investigating.

Myra Kemp has learned to live with pain. Over the last 20 years, she's had more than a dozen surgeries for tumors on her brain, kidneys and spine.

But she said it's nothing like the pain she felt when she found out that a woman sent to her home to care for her, a woman with a history of stealing, is now suspected of stealing $6,000 worth of her jewelry.

“I've cried more about this than I have cried over all of my surgeries combined,” Kemp said.

And when the crying stopped, Kemp began to ask how it could happen.

Her questions started with the Lincoln County Department of Social Services, where she'd signed up for the program providing free home health care.

Dean Bethea of Adult Services said DSS contracts with several private companies that provide the home health care workers.

“Do you check the employees they hire and send into these homes?” Becker asked.

“We're really not in a position to check their employees,” Bethea said.

One of those companies is Premier Home Care, based in Granite Falls. That’s the company that sent 35-year-old Misty Rohr to Kemp's home, despite the fact that she has a criminal record that includes larceny, the legal term for stealing.

“If Premier of Granite Falls had done a background check, they would have come up with at least what I came up with, which was arrests and convictions that go back to 2007,” Kemp said.

So Eyewitness News went to Premier Home Care to ask how they screen employees.

“Is there anyone who can tell me how you do background checks?” Becker asked.

“No, we really can't give any comment,” a worker said.

When Becker tried calling the owner on her cell phone, he only got her voicemail.

But Eyewitness News reviewed state regulations and found that home health care agencies are required to check the criminal history records before hiring workers who will go into a patient's home. If they find a conviction for what the guidelines call a relevant offense, the agency has to consider several factors before hiring that person.

“I would not, in my wildest dreams, have imagined that a county agency would let someone send a convicted criminal into my house,” Kemp said.

Rorh is now in jail on another charge of larceny. Detectives said she confessed to stealing Kemp's jewelry.

As for Premier Home Care, according to records with the state, they haven't had any complaints filed in the last two years.

Right now, Lincoln County still has the company on the list of home care providers.

Unfortunately, state records for home care companies are not on line. However, plenty of Web sites offer basic background checks and some are as cheap as $10.

If you want to file complaints about a caregiver or a company, visit the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

If you have questions about home care agencies in North Carolina, contact the N.C. Division of Health Service Regulation, Home Care Staff, at 919-855-4620.

For complaints regarding home care agencies in North Carolina, contact the complaint hotline at 1-800-624-3004 (North Carolina only) or 919-855-4500 (Out of state calls).