Featured: Arizona caregiver Mark Sampson. Setting: The Phoenix community where Mark Sampson worked at a group home and is accused of gagging a nonverbal individual with cerebral palsy (KNXV/YouTube).
In a distressing case from Arizona, a caregiver, identified as Mark Sampson, stands accused of using a washcloth and socks to gag a nonverbal man with cerebral palsy at a group home located in Phoenix.
Assistant Attorney General Ryan Dill, representing the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, elaborated during Sampson’s court appearance that the victim’s face bore red marks from the socks tied tightly around his head. “A washcloth had been forcefully placed in the victim’s mouth, causing significant distress,” Dill stated as Sampson faced charges for vulnerable adult abuse under conditions posing risk of serious injury or death.
Local ABC affiliate KNXV captured Dill’s comments on the case. He lamented, “Photographs reveal the victim’s sheer terror,” underscoring what he described as a severe affront to both human dignity and legal standards.
According to details outlined in a probable cause affidavit acquired by local station KNXV, Sampson held the role of certified caregiver at this Phoenix-based facility. The allegations indicate that while on duty on March 19, he gagged the victim by inserting a washcloth into his mouth and securing it with socks. Further compounding the situation, he allegedly covered the victim with blankets thereafter.
According to the affidavit, the victim was unable to remove the gag due to extreme contracture of his arms and hands and had little to no use of his fine motor skills. The man was also unable to call for help because he is nonverbal, KNXV reports.
“The most vulnerable members of society — namely an individual who is afflicted with cerebral palsy — he is non-ambulatory and nonverbal,” Dill said in court. “His arms are contracted in such a way that he can’t even move and he cannot make a noise.”
Staff took the victim to a local hospital after finding him and he was treated for “abrasions around the outside of much of his mouth, and ligature marks on the sides of his neck,” according to the affidavit.
Sampson was arrested and charged on June 24. He has reportedly denied gagging the victim, claiming someone launched the accusations against him in an attempt to get him fired.
“Some sort of setup,” Sampson said in court last week.
He is being held on a $25,000 secured bond.