“Hello, Hell Intake Center?”
Okay, so Richard Vu Nguyen is not guilty of anything until deemed so by a judge or jury of his peers.
But, if the 44-year-old Garden Grove caretaker is ultimately found guilty of what the Orange County District Attorney's office (OCDA) accuses him of–beating his female roommate with Down Syndrome–send him on a one-way trip to you-know-where.
Non-stop, do not pass go, do not collect $200.
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Because of her affliction, the 45-year-old woman identified only as Jane Doe cannot communicate verbally. In March, her family suspected she was being abused. A surveillance camera was set up in her bedroom.
According to the Garden Grove Police Department, which later looked at the secret video at the urging of the woman's family, some time between March 31 and April 9, Nguyen allegedly came into the roommate's room, jumped up on her bed and kicked her in the head and torso. He then left.
Police later arrested Nguyen, and he has been charged with one felony count of dependent adult abuse. If convicted, he could get up to four years in state prison. Nguyen has a pre-trial hearing set for later this month in Westminster.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.