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Associated PressThe center where a sex offender allegedly raped a woman says the state agency should have told it he was living there.
JACKSONVILLE - A nursing home where an 83-year-old repeat sex offender was charged with raping a resident blames the state Department of Children and Families for saying the man was not a threat.
The woman's family members are suing Southwood Nursing Center, saying they should have been told convicted sex offender Ivey Edwards was living there.
Southwood's lawyers asked a judge Monday to allow bringing DCF in as a third party to the lawsuit. It notified the agency of its intent, a Florida law requirement.
"The department . . . assessed and advised our clients that Mr. Edwards posed no threat of harm to others," attorney Trevor Hawes wrote to DCF.
DCF spokesman Tom Barnes said he couldn't talk about the Edwards case, but he said the department doesn't do criminal background checks on elderly clients unless it has reason to think the person might engage in predatory or felonious behavior.
Edwards has a criminal record dating to 1945, including convictions in the 1960s for molesting a child in Jacksonville and sexual assault in Sarasota, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
He was living in a Gainesville homeless shelter in 2002 when a judge there determined him a vulnerable adult and ordered him into DCF custody. He was placed at Southwood at DCF's request.
Shortly after he arrived, he was found raping a comatose 77-year-old woman in her room, Jacksonville police said. He was charged with sexual battery, but a judge found him incompetent to stand trial and sent him to Florida State Hospital in Chattahoochee.
The victim died a year ago of unrelated causes. Her family sued Southwood for failing to protect her.
The nursing home denies the family's claims but said it could have taken steps to prevent the alleged rape had DCF notified it of the potential danger.
DCF has until May 19 to respond to Southwood's intent letter.
Jeff Morrow, attorney for the woman's family, said DCF's potential involvement "doesn't affect us at all because our focus is still on the nursing home and their failure to protect our client."
The family also is lobbying for legislation that would require nursing homes to notify residents and their families when convicted sex offenders are living among them.