A newly unsealed Northampton County grand jury report details how a non-verbal hospice resident at Gracedale Nursing Home in Nazareth was assaulted by an agency nurse during what investigators describe as an attempted exorcism and later died; the grand jury did not connect the death to the assault. Four separate 911 calls over more than 30 minutes failed to bring police in time to stop it. The 44-page report, released Thursday, September 10, 2026, also outlines chronic staffing, security and sanitation failures at the county-owned facility that officials tried to keep sealed from the public.
The attack happened in the early morning hours of June 23, 2025, when officers with the Upper Nazareth Police Department finally arrived at 3:27 a.m. and found agency nurse Octavia Robinson actively assaulting the resident while shouting about demons, according to Daily Voice. The victim, identified in official records only by the initials E.B., was a non-verbal hospice resident with an intellectual disability who sustained severe injuries and subsequently died; the grand jury did not connect her death to the assault, the outlet reported. As detailed by NBC Philadelphia, the woman's two elderly roommates spent more than 30 minutes trying to get help from Gracedale staff and law enforcement while Robinson allegedly put her fingers down the victim's mouth and stuffed clothes and towels into her throat.
The delay in police response is one of the most alarming details in the report. During the third of four 911 calls, placed at 3:18 a.m., a Gracedale supervisor reportedly told dispatchers that staff would contact the complaining roommate and “take her phone away or something,” the report states, per the same account from Daily Voice. When officers eventually entered the room, Robinson resisted arrest before being taken into custody, according to NBC Philadelphia.
Grand Jury Demands Independent Review of Police Response
The grand jury, convened in 2024 following safety concerns at the facility, issued seven advisory recommendations, including a call for an independent investigation into how the Upper Nazareth Police Department handles emergency calls from Gracedale, according to the Lehigh Daily Express. The report also identified a broader lack of security at the 688-bed facility, noting that Gracedale does not have security staffed full-time, and that residents have wandered away from the facility only to be later found by police, the outlet reported.
Robinson, 43, of Morristown, New Jersey, was an agency licensed practical nurse who was admitted for a psychiatric evaluation at Lehigh Valley Hospital following the incident, according to NBC Philadelphia. She posted $25,000 bail in July 2025 on charges including abuse of a care-dependent person, simple assault, and harassment, per the Lehigh Valley Ramblings blog. At the time of the incident, Robinson held a single-state New Jersey nursing license, before Pennsylvania joined a multi-state licensure compact, the same blog noted.
County Leaders Tried to Keep the Report Sealed
Northampton County Executive Tara Zrinski sent a letter in June requesting that President Judge Craig A. Dally quash or seal the grand jury report, arguing county leadership believed it lacked context and did not meet the legal criteria under state grand jury statutes, the Lehigh Daily Express reported. Judge Dally rejected the request and released the full document along with official responses on Thursday, September 10, 2026.
The report also identified other troubling incidents at Gracedale, including two separate patient-on-patient assaults in early October 2025. In one, a reportedly aggressive patient violently assaulted a second patient who had wandered into his room, per the grand jury findings cited by NBC Philadelphia. In the other, a patient entered another patient's bathroom and touched his penis, the outlet reported. Investigators also found nursing staff sleeping at their desks while officers were present, and documented a nurse who left the serving line while wearing gloves, opened doors to other residents' rooms, and returned to serve food without changing gloves.
Staffing Crisis and Regulatory Downgrades
The grand jury findings show Gracedale's reliance on temporary outside staffing agencies rose to 75% during Administrator Michelle Morton's first eight months in office, worsening low morale, security gaps, and operational costs, according to the Lehigh Daily Express. Like many long-term care facilities nationwide, Gracedale has faced persistent staffing shortages since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Those pressures have coincided with steep regulatory consequences. As of mid-2026, Pennsylvania's Department of Health placed Gracedale on a Provisional II operating license, alongside a 1-star Medicare rating and a Medicare abuse warning icon, according to Lehigh Valley Ramblings. The facility had operated under a less severe Provisional I status earlier in the year before being downgraded further, the blog reported. Federal health inspection records compiled by ProPublica's Nursing Home Inspect cited Gracedale for 22 deficiencies and $144,328 in federal fines as of 2026, making it a candidate for Medicare's Special Focus Facility program for chronically poor-performing nursing homes, per the Lehigh Daily Express. Medicare inspections also found deficiencies rising from two in 2024 to fourteen in 2025, according to NBC Philadelphia, including residents not receiving needed medical attention or medications. Separately, inspectors found Gracedale refrigerators storing expired and improperly labeled foods on April 16, 2025, the outlet reported.
New Oversight Department, Same Administrator
In response to the mounting problems, the Northampton County Council voted 5-4 in May to establish a new cabinet-level Continuum of Care department to oversee Gracedale, confirming Thomas Carson as its director in July, according to the Lehigh Daily Express. Gracedale serves medically challenged patients, the outlet noted. County officials say a deputy sheriff is now stationed in the Gracedale lobby from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and some weekends, and that corrective action is already underway, per NBC Philadelphia.
In responses attached to the grand jury report, Morton's lawyers said the report lacked context and was not fully accurate, according to Lehigh Valley Ramblings. Zrinski has maintained public confidence in Morton despite the grand jury's findings, the blog reported, and has said delays in Medicaid reimbursements caused some of Gracedale's financial challenges, per NBC Philadelphia. Zrinski has said she plans to improve Gracedale's long-term future, with improvement plans including evaluation of a modernized facility and additional resources to strengthen care and sustainability.
