Ex-caregiver charged with sharing videos of nude residents at South Barrington memory care home

Bernard “Skip” Fisher II suffered from Parkinson’s disease, and couldn’t speak. He was completely dependent on care at Encore Memory Care in South Barrington. Five days before he passed away in July, his wife, Kristen Fisher, said she received an alarming phone call from the Encore executive director.

Fisher was told that her husband and other residents had been videotaped naked at the home, and the images were shared among a group of facility employees via Snapchat.

“I was completely shocked,” Fisher said. “I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. My husband was humiliated, he was degraded, and not able to defend himself. It immobilizes my every thought since then.”

Madison Russo, 25, of Bartlett, was charged with unauthorized videotaping and unauthorized dissemination of a person at their residence without their permission. Russo was scheduled to face arraignment on the charge Tuesday.

Officials from Encore did not return a phone call in a request for comment.

At least three other residents were also videotaped, a police report stated, one while naked in the shower, one on the toilet, and another in her underpants in front of her wheelchair.

“Madison explained that (patient name redacted) always gives her a hard time during showers, and she wanted to show other caregivers what she deals with,” the police report stated.

South Barrington Police Chief Michael Garrison said he was not aware of other victims beyond those in the police report, but that the investigation continued.

“This was an isolated incident that our detective worked very hard on solving quickly,” he said.

The videos were taken between January and July of this year. An employee at the home alerted the director, who notified police on June 25. Six employees were terminated. Kristen Fisher said families generally were told simply that there were some staffing changes at the facility.

Fisher, 73, was a retired insurance salesman and a vibrant, fun-loving man, his wife said, before Parkinson’s, a neurological disease, robbed him of much of his movement.

He went into Encore in 2023 after his wife was injured while caring for him and could no longer take care of him herself.

Fisher hoped the criminal justice system would make the offender pay for what she did, and was exploring legal options against Encore.

She also called for policies to prohibit nursing home and memory care facility workers from using their phones in patient rooms and showers and on social media.

“They should not be allowed to have their cell phones (while working),” she said. “There should be closer supervision.”

Jaime Koziol Delaney, a partner at Levin & Perconti who is handling Fisher’s case, said if there are any other victims, she hopes they come forward.

“Sadly, we have handled cases like this in the past at other nursing home facilities,” she said. “It is a documented and recurring form of elder abuse. Patients with dementia can be particularly vulnerable to this type of degrading abuse.”

rmccoppin@chicagotribune.com