FERGUS FALLS, Minn. (Fergus Falls Daily Journal) – An Alexandria woman made her first appearance in Otter Tail County District Court on Nov. 20, after beating a group home client under her care.
Ashley Jade Simons, 23, has been charged with the fourth degree assault of a vulnerable adult at a group home in Fergus Falls.
Court documents say that on Nov. 18, a Fergus Falls police officer was dispatched to a hospital on a report that a vulnerable adult had been assaulted and observed that the victim appeared to be a low functioning adult who was unable to clearly communicate.
The court complaint further states that the victim’s care provider indicated the provider had a video of the victim being assaulted as they had previous suspicions of abuse and captured Simons assaulting the victim around 6 p.m. on Nov. 17. The footage showed the client being fed, when suddenly Simons became upset, stood up, and struck the victim in what appeared to be two separate times in the head area, and then sat back down.
Court records state that in another video, Simons demonstrated her frustration with the victim by kicking away a footrest she had been sitting on and and then walked to the side of the victim, who was seated in a recliner. At this point, Simons is shown physically removing the victim from the recliner.
The court complaint states that It was unclear to law enforcement as to whether Simons grabbed the victim’s hair or shirt collar area to lift them from the recliner, due to the angle of the camera, however, the victim was not properly assisted out of the chair, due to both of their hands and arms being in camera view.
In another video, Simons is seen walking the victim back to the recliner from another room. It was at this point that Simons pushed the victim into the recliner, saying, “Now sit! Enough!”, then moved to the front of the recliner and appeared to hit the victim with her knee. When the victim got out of the recliner and started walking toward the dining area, Simons is accused of charging at the victim. The victim appeared to attempt to get out of the way by twisting their body away from Simons. Simons then grabbed the victim’s wrists and the victim attempted to hop to keep her footing before Simons pushed them to the ground and yelled, “Get down!” as the victim fell to the floor. She then pulled the victim up off the floor by their hands.
Simons later slid furniture in front of the entrances to a living room area, where the victim was located. The provider described the victim as usually laughing and playing, but after the assault they did not seem like themselves.
A Fergus Falls police detective later interviewed Simons by phone and she immediately stated she had taken her frustration out on the victim and should not have. Simons later claimed to the detective that nothing like that had happened before, but stated she had a lot going on in her personal life and admitted that what happened was not appropriate.
Simons will make her next court appearance on Dec. 31.
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