Charges Dismissed Against COVID Patient Who Assaulted Senior Citizen in Nursing Home

“He shouldn’t be in prison,” Marty Hayden said about his son Jadon, now 22, who had been facing multiple charges including assault for the May 2020 beating of Norman Bledsoe inside a nursing home on Detroit’s west side.

Disturbing content warning.

Here is the May 2020 video of Jadon Hayden beating an elderly man in a nursing home. Hayden was sent to the nursing home by Michigan health officials to recover from Covid-19. pic.twitter.com/vjeC3SDOrL

— Andy Ngô 🏳️‍🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) May 17, 2022

The charges against Jadon Hayden were dismissed after he was found incompetent. Hayden now resides in a psychiatric hospital in the Kalamazoo area where he cannot come and go.

Marty Hayden said if his son had been convicted and sent to prison, it would have only worsened his mental health issues.

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Marty Hayden is hoping to find a lawyer to hold those responsible for placing his son in the nursing home, where he believes he was set up to fail and Bledsoe to become a victim.

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Jadon Hayden videotaped himself repeatedly hitting Bledsoe as the Army veteran laid in his bed. The two men shared a room at the Westwood Nursing Center on Detroit’s west side.

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In early May 2020, Jadon Hayden called 911 so that he could be sent to a hospital for treatment. His father said it was at the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor where Jadon was then diagnosed with COVID-19. He said that’s when the 20-year-old who had dreams of becoming a boxer was sent to the nursing home to recover.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and state health officials have been criticized for allowing nursing homes to accept those recovering from COVID-19 for continued care. {snip}

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Bledsoe died in another nursing facility two months after the assault. His death was not ruled a homicide.

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