Crane worked as a nurse’s aide at The Sanctuary at Wilmington Place in Dayton when she is accused of abusing a 90-year-old woman on April 21, 2018, according to a release from the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office. She was indicted July 2, 2018, on one count of patient abuse.
Crane told her patient to get out of bed even though she was unable to do so on her own. Crane returned to the woman’s room a short time later, grabbed her arms and jerked her to a seated position. When Crane returned to the room a third time and the woman was still in bed, Crane reportedly jerked her to a standing position, which led to the woman suffering neck pain and several large bruises on her forearms, the prosecutor’s office said.
A sentencing memorandum from the prosecutor’s office argued that Crane should be sentenced to prison.
“Dikki Crane violated the trust of (the victim), her family and her employer in a brutal, unforgiving fashion.” The victim, who has since died, “was jerked out of bed. She was verbally abused … She was left with grotesque bruises and ongoing pain,” the document stated.
Crane’s defense attorney argued that community control would be sufficient punishment because her conviction prevents her from ever working in the healthcare field again.
Crane’s State Tested Nursing Assistant license is expired, according to the nurse aide registry on the Ohio Department of Health website.
Also, Crane’s attorney stated in a court filing that there are mitigating factors, including that Crane never before had a criminal record, that in 2015 she suffered the loss of her eldest son who died by homicide and that she was diagnosed with a mental illness following her presence during the August 2019 mass shooting in Dayton.
Crane began serving her sentence Monday afternoon.
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