WARNING: This article contains details of abuse.
A worker accused of abusing vulnerable people in her care at a Saskatchewan group home denies the allegations against her.
Jaclyn Elias, 38, testified Tuesday in her own defence at her trial in North Battleford provincial court.
She is charged with assault, sexual assault and uttering threats against residents at a group home in Wilkie, Sask., during a 13-month period that ended Feb. 28, 2024. Wilkie is about 50 kilometres southwest of North Battleford.
The intellectually disabled adult residents at the group home rely on wheelchairs, are non-verbal, and require help with all of their daily needs, including getting lifted out of their beds, dressed, bathed and fed.
Three of Elias’s former co-workers and the executive director of Prairie Branches, which operates the group home, testified as Crown witnesses. Elias was fired after the allegations against her came to light.
The identities of the four residents she allegedly assaulted are protected by a publication ban.
The final Crown witness on Tuesday morning, Erica Herle, said she only worked with Elias one day a month. She said that during a shift together in February 2024, she heard a “screech” come from a room where Elias and another care worker, Holly Ennis, were with a resident.
When the resident was brought out in his wheelchair, Herle said he appeared “so shaky” and “terrified.” She said she thought he was going to have a seizure.
Later, she said Ennis told her that Elias had told the resident, “Today’s the day you’re going to die.”
Ennis testified on Monday about that incident. She said she saw Elias put her hand over the resident’s mouth and nose area and tell him, “You’re so cute. I could kill you.”
Herle said she couldn’t stop thinking about it after her shift was over, and she ultimately went to human resources later that month to report the incident.
“At the end of the day, we’re here to tell the truth,” Herle said. “I think more people need to advocate for these people who can’t advocate for themselves.”
Elias testifies
On Tuesday morning after the Crown closed its case, defence lawyer Meagan Ward called Elias to testify.
She walked her through all of the allegations made by the co-workers.
One regarded a resident who drooled a lot, and would harm herself by putting her mouth into her hand and biting it. Elias’s regular partner on her shifts, Lisa Knuff, said she saw Elias stuff a washcloth into the resident’s mouth to stop the drooling.
Elias denied doing that, but said she did tie a washcloth loosely around the resident’s hand and on one occasion it ended up in the resident’s mouth and she had trouble getting it out.
Another allegation regarded an elderly male resident. All three of the co-workers testified that they had seen Elias either shake her breasts in his face or “dry hump” him.
Elias said she would dance to music and it would entertain the residents. Ward asked Elias if she ever touched that resident with her body.
“No,” Elias replied.
She also denied putting her fingers into that resident’s mouth and wiggling them in a sexual manner.
She said it was possible that she accidentally brushed residents’ bodies when she would be hooking them into their lifts or otherwise helping them, if she had to lean over them, due to her short stature. Elias is 4′ 10″.
Regarding the resident whose mouth was allegedly covered by Elias while she told him he was going to die, Elias said that never happened.
She also denied using a stick to touch the groin of another resident.
Questioned about appropriate behaviour
During her direct testimony and under cross-examination by Crown prosecutor Danielle Elder, Elias acknowledged calling one of the residents a “pervert” while leaning over him, but said it was a “running joke” in the group home.
“Do you think it’s appropriate behaviour or language to demean a client, to call a client a pervert, in their presence?” Elder asked.
“I wasn’t saying it to him,” Elias responded.
“But he was there … you were saying it about him,” Elder continued. “Do you think that’s appropriate behaviour, to say that about an individual who’s relying on you?”
“Probably not,” Elias said.
After her testimony, the defence closed its case.
The trial, which is being heard by Judge Ian Mokuruk, will continue with closing arguments, but the date has not been set yet.
If you’re in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911. For support in your area, you can look for crisis lines and local services via the Ending Sexual Violence Association of Canada database.
