Sister sentenced: Alexandra Cataldo, 59, has pleaded guilty to neglecting her 65-year-old brother, Leonard, and was sentenced to three years of probation and community service
A Massachusetts woman has pleaded guilty to neglecting her 65-year-old brother and allowing him to live in what police described as ‘horrifying’ conditions.
Alexandra Cataldo, 59, was sentenced on Wednesday to three years’ probation and 500 hours of community service after pleading guilty to permitting abuse or neglect of an elderly person.
She was also barred from acting as a caregiver to another person or animal in the future.
Police say Cataldo’s older brother, Leonard Cataldo, was found in their Haverhill apartment lying on the floor covered in human waste in February 2016, reported The Eagle Tribune.
The man weighed less than 80lbs, and nurses had to cut off his hair swarming with insects.
Another brother, Mark Cataldo, was also charged and is due in court on November 9, at which time he is also expected to take a plea deal.
Alexandra and Mark Cataldo said through attorneys that they wanted to help their brother Leonard, but he repeatedly refused it.
House of horrors: Paramedics responded to the family’s apartment on Winter Street in Haverhill, Massachusetts, where they found Leonard Cataldo lying on the floor covered in urine, feces and insects
His brother and sister were arrested on February 6, 2016, after paramedics responded to the trio’s $800-a-month home on Winter Street in Haverhill for a report of a man suffering from flu-like symptoms.
First responders entered the two-bedroom apartment home and were overwhelmed by an unbearable odor of human waste.
According to a police report, most surfaces inside the cluttered unit were covered in a thick layer of dust, dirt, mold, cobwebs and insects.
Upstairs, the EMS workers found Leonard Cataldd lying in a fetal position. His filthy pants were around his ankles, and he was covered in feces, urine and bugs, according to police.
Leonard’s brother Mark Cataldo (pictured) is expected to also plead guilty in the case in November
When he was taken to Holy Family Hospital, nurses observed that his bones were visible through his skin, he had open wounds and lesion, his feet were filthy and his toes and knuckles were black.
By the time he was found in this state, he had not eaten in five days and could no longer get the bathroom by crawling on the floor, as he had been doing for the last two months, leaving him to relieve himself on the carpet next to his twin bed.
He had shared the squalid apartment with his siblings for five years, the last two of which he had spent confined to the second-floor bedroom.
Leonard Cataldo is now living in a nursing home.