Calistoga vice mayor confronts elder abuse charges

When Parkinson’s disease began to overtake Bruce Skogen, several of his Calistoga friends began making regular visits to Cedars Care Home, where he was living. The visitors were led by Terry Ponsford, a retired lawyer with a deep well of energy and a talent for organization.

Ponsford and the rest of the crew would banter with Skogen, make sure his needs were being met and casually chat with the facility’s manager, Irais Lopez-Ortega.

“I remember one time, we were all there joking with Irais, just as friends, and someone said something like, ‘Make sure you save a room for Terry,’” recalled Alan Finneran, an artist who lives in Calistoga. “She laughed and said, ‘Don’t worry, Terry, we’ll always have room for you.’ The way it played out, it’s almost cinematic.”

The genre is tragedy. The Napa County District Attorney’s Office has charged Lopez-Ortega, now 58, with four counts of elder abuse. She is suspected of harming Terry Ponsford, who had moved to Cedars Care Home as he slid into dementia, and, according to Lopez-Ortega’s lawyer, had become a behavioral problem there.

The news has roiled Calistoga, where Lopez-Ortega is the sitting vice mayor. A tightly woven town of about 5,200 people, it isn’t above gossip and divisive issues. But the feeling pervading the community in the wake of the accusations against Lopez-Ortega is mostly sadness.

“It’s a terrible cliche, but it’s almost like something that happened within a large family,” Finneran said.

The setting is jarring, too. “Visiting Napa facilities, Cedars is the one where I thought, ‘If I have to go into a home, this is where I’d like to go,’” said John Lord, the long-term care ombudsman for Napa County.

Yet it was Lord who summoned the Calistoga Police Department to Cedars Care Home on July 4 to file a report of abuse.

That morning, with folding chairs lining the downtown sidewalks in preparation for Calistoga’s famed Fourth of July parade, Lord’s office received an anonymous tip that Ponsford had been assaulted by a caregiver.

Lord sent two agents to, and they requested a conversation with the reported victim. They didn’t want to lead Ponsford’s answers, Lord said, so they made small talk and waited to see if he’d mention the incident.

“He told us word for word what the anonymous person said,” Lord noted.

The DA’s office charged Lopez-Ortega with two felony counts of elder abuse and two felony violations of the welfare and institution code, which assistant district attorney Paul Gero described as akin to elder endangerment. They stemmed from two separate incidents.

On June 29, according to a California Department of Social Services complaint investigation report, a resident fell over backward when a Cedars staff member grabbed his shirt and pulled him away from a dining room table. The resident was taken by ambulance to St. Helena Hospital. The Napa County DA says that resident was Ponsford, and the staff member was Lopez-Ortega.

The July 4 incident was more serious.

An arrest detention complaint form filed by the DA’s office says Lopez-Ortega “pushed and shoved a senior resident, Terrence Ponsford (80 years old), causing him to fall to the ground leading to bruising and pain. While Ponsford was on the ground Lopez removed her shoe and hit him numerous times. Lopez then dragged Ponsford by his arm and shirt, while he had no additional clothing on, across the floor and into his bedroom. Lopez then left Ponsford on the ground in his room for several hours offering him no medical attention.”

The complaint states Ponsford was using a walker at the time. The Department of Social Services report says he sustained “significant bruising to his body” that day.

Both the state and county offices refer to video evidence of the assaults.

Lord said he rarely comes across elder abuse this dramatic. “I would say in Napa County, this is probably the first one in years,” he said. “I came from 10 years running the Solano County office, and there it was probably monthly.”

Lopez-Ortega has pleaded innocent to all charges. She is scheduled for a court date Tuesday, but only for Napa County Superior Court Judge Elia Ortiz to weigh release of specific records. Substantive arguments are unlikely to occur before January.

The alleged assault would be shocking under any circumstances. But the allegations against Lopez-Ortega have stunned locals. They unfailingly describe her as affable, nurturing and helpful, and she is one of the most prominent Latino voices in Napa Valley. One Calistoga resident who knows both Ponsford and Lopez-Ortega well, but asked that her name not be used, calls Lopez-Ortega “a kind and gentle soul.”

Lopez-Ortega, her attorney and members of her family declined interviews with The Press Democrat.

Lopez-Ortega is an iconic immigrant success story, one that has been recounted in publications on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, including Calistoga Living (where she made a cover appearance in June) and El Universal Oaxaca.

Lopez-Ortega was born and raised in the Oaxacan city of Huajuapan de León, the daughter of a taxi driver and a homemaker, and the oldest of 16 children. She survived an abusive marriage and came to America without immigration papers in her mid-20s. She worked two or three jobs at a time in the Bay Area, largely to support her brother, who had been diagnosed with leukemia at the age of 3.

One of those jobs was housekeeping at an elder care home in San Francisco. One day, Lopez-Ortega filled in as a caregiver and, as the story goes, never went back to cleaning. She eventually earned a nursing assistant certificate, and a medical assistant associate degree from Empire College in Santa Rosa, according to Latinas.org.

Lopez-Ortega began working at Cedars in 2014, hired by longtime owner-licensee Laura Sherwood.

Sherwood chose her words carefully during a phone interview with The Press Democrat, but became more effusive when describing her colleague.

“I would love to tell you about Irais,” she said. “I would love to tell you about how Cedars really expanded its services and overhauled its activities program when she took over. How I’m delighted and pleased with her management of Cedars, especially during our devastating fire seasons. (Residents were evacuated at least twice.) How I’m delighted with her management of the pandemic, and the challenges associated with that.”

Sherwood said she has not viewed the surveillance video cited by investigators.

“I would like to understand better what happened,” she said. “Because her caregiving experience prior to that, I think it speaks for itself.”

Lopez-Ortega was appointed to the Calistoga City Council to fill a vacancy in 2013, then elected to a council seat in 2016 and 2020. She is the second person of Latino descent to hold the position in Calistoga. The first, Placido Garcia-Hernandez, is as shocked as anyone by the recent revelations.

“For me, I am very proud of her,” said Garcia-Hernandez, who is now in his 47th year working in and managing the vineyards at Chateau Montelena. “I can’t believe she can do something like that, really. I heard, and I thought maybe it is a different Irais. Only the courts will decide. For me, I cannot believe.”

Lopez-Ortega has not stepped back from her governmental duties. She participated in remote council meetings on Oct. 19 and Nov. 2, after the Napa Valley Register first reported the allegations against her.

“In terms of her continuing to serve, she’s entitled to do so,” said Calistoga Mayor Chris Canning, who spoke highly of Lopez-Ortega, emphasizing her volunteerism and her work on water education. “She is not committed to cease her service while she’s entitled to due process.”

But Lopez-Ortega is no longer working with seniors. The Department of Social Services issued an exclusion order against her, directing her to vacate caregiver duties at Cedars.

The state also voided her license at L&B Care Home, a smaller facility Lopez-Ortega had opened at her house in Calistoga in 2017. (The DSS previously cited her for running the site unlicensed in 2013.) The five seniors living at L&B were removed and transferred to other facilities over a two-week period in August.

Something that continues to bother Lord: One of Lopez-Ortega’s daughters succeeded her as manager at Cedars. The DSS said through a representative that Lopez-Ortega’s replacement had only to satisfy standard requirements for criminal record clearance and experience.

“I’m delighted with the staff we currently have working there,” Sherwood said when asked about the transfer of duties. “And I have every confidence with the people working at Cedars now.”

Calistoga resident Marcey Smith is familiar with both Cedars and L&B, because her sister Rosalie lived at each. Smith describes Lopez-Ortega as kind, understanding and adept at handling difficult patients — like her sister. Rosalie suffers from dementia and is prone to verbal outbursts. Smith said there was nothing in Lopez-Ortega’s work to make her believe her sister was at risk.

“I visited almost once a week for five years, and I never saw anything happen,” Smith said.

Complicating the matter further, perhaps, is Ponsford’s reputation. He has been estranged from both of his children for several years, son Craig Ponsford, a prominent North Bay baker, told The Press Democrat. Some call him harsh or combative, traits that have intensified as the dementia progresses.

“There is a history of difficult behavior that was accelerating and being reported by Ms. Lopez to treating physicians trying to get help. … Trying to get him either a medical treatment or better placement,” her attorney, Douglas Pharr of Napa, told Judge Ortiz at a hearing Friday. “But he was becoming uncontrollable. It wasn’t working where he was at. And she was making efforts to try and resolve that, and meeting not much assistance.”

Finneran sees Ponsford in a more positive light.

“I wouldn’t say combative. But he liked people who knew what they were talking about,” Finneran said. “And he was impatient with people. I heard a few things where he lost his temper at meetings, and probably shouldn’t have. One thing I remember, though. I know who he lost his temper at, and I understand why he did.”

None of that dims Finneran’s respect or fondness for Lopez-Ortega, though. He has seen her around town in the past few weeks, and senses her personal pain.

“It’s like a big chunk of sadness,” Finneran said. “No one really knows what happened — just Irais and Terry, with his dementia. And he probably doesn’t even remember.”

You can reach Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @Skinny_Post.