Nursing asst. gets jail in foot-dragging incident A certified nursing assistant was sentenced to 21 days in jail on a charge of criminal negligence of a vulnerable adult. Prosecutors said Ophelia Tarpeh, 40, of Alexandria, was escorting a partially paralyzed resident of the Leewood Healthcare Center in Alexandria to a dentist appointment in D.C. The nurse and patient had been dropped off at the wrong hospital, and Tarpeh began pushed the patient in a wheelchair to another area. The wheelchair did not have a footrest, and the patient’s foot dragged along a concrete sidewalk and asphalt for up to 8,000 feet. As a result, doctors had to cut off one of the client’s toes, prosecutors said.
Fire at Smithsonian
A fire broke out at a building next to the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History that houses the facility’s cooling tower, D.C. fire officials said. Around 7:30 a.m. Monday, D.C. firefighters were dispatched to the museum. Heavy smoke was pouring from a detached building at Ninth Street and Constitution Avenue NW. Maintenance workers had been in the area of the building when a fire started in the interior of the cooling tower itself, D.C. Fire spokesman Pete Piringer said. A hazardous materials unit was called in because the interior components of the cooling unit contained plastic and various chemicals, Piringer said. No one was injured, officials said. And museum officials said no smoke entered the green-domed building that houses millions of artifacts and collections.
Body found in Temple Hills
U.S. Park Police are investigating the discovery of a body near the Branch Avenue Metro.
A police spokesman said the body was found south of the Suitland Parkway in Temple Hills at around 3 p.m. Sunday. The body was found along a tree line, near the tracks that run parallel to the parkway. Police have not identified the man, and Maryland medical examiners were trying to determine a cause of death.
– Scott McCabe
