Dementia Patient Sexually Assaulted At Seal Beach Nursing Home

SEAL BEACH, CA — A 52-year-old man faces felony charges in connection with the sexual assault of an 85-year-old woman with dementia Tuesday in Seal Beach, the Orange County District Attorney's Office said.

The woman's condition was not known. Patch does not identify victims of sexual assault.

Louie Alonso Alberto of Seal Beach was charged with one count of sodomy of an incompetent person and two counts of assault with the intent to commit a sexual offense, all felonies, the district attorney's office announced Friday.

Alberto was booked into the Theo Lacy Facility and held on $1 million bail, according to jail records.

He faces a sentence of seven years to life in state prison if convicted on all charges.

Alberto previously served time in prison after being convicted of corporal injury on a spouse, the district attorney's office said. He was living at the Seal Beach nursing facility where the assault happened, the district attorney's office said. The DA's office declined to identify the facility.

Nurses at the facility responded to the sound of a woman screaming around 6:45 a.m. Tuesday and found a man on top of an 85-year-old dementia patient, the district attorney's office said.

A wheelchair was blocking the door, and nurses had to push their way in, authorities said.

The man was also in the same woman's room the day before the assault, the district attorney's office said.

The Seal Beach Police Department arrested Alberto shortly after the assault.

"A health and rehabilitation facility should be a place where people go to rest and recover," Seal Beach police Chief Philip Gonshak said in a statement. "They certainly should never have to worry about being victimized while they’re healing."

The district attorney's office said it is investigating how Alberto came to live at the facility.