Nicholas’s Law aims to eliminate timelines for reporting abuse of nonverbal, care-dependant people

BEAVER COUNTY, Pa. — It’s a smile that Heather Harold will never forget.

“My brother, he was just an absolutely very, very special person. He was born very severely mentally and physically handicapped. He never walked, he never talked but he impacted so many people just by being himself,” Harold said.

Protecting her younger brother was a job she took to heart and it’s a job she still takes seriously nearly six years after his death.

“There were 13 victims total, my brother being one of them,” Harold said.

Beaver County detectives found videos on two caregivers’ phones at McGuire Memorial, the facility where Nicholas lived. The videos are graphic. Heather said it shows the men laughing as they physically abuse these nonverbal patients.

“It was just awful to hear everything they had done to him. They rubbed hand sanitizer in his eyes, he was so contracted he couldn’t even raise his hands to wipe the things from his eyes,” Harold said.

All of the state charges were dismissed for both defendants. Detectives told Heather the statute of limitations had run out.

“It’s just common sense if you can’t report it there shouldn’t be a time limit on it,” Harold said.

Now she’s working with her State Representative, Rob Mercuri, to change that law.

“The statute of limitations is there to make sure evidence doesn’t erode over time and that’s understandable, however with the advancement of technology, video evidence doesn’t degrade over time, and in this case, they had video evidence they couldn’t use, and it just doesn’t make sense,” Mercuri said.

Just this week, Mercuri’s proposal became House Bill 1614, or Nicholas’s Law. If passed it will eliminate any timeline when it comes to reporting abuse of a nonverbal care-dependent person.

“I hope he knows that even though we couldn’t fight for him then. We can do it now and we can fight for other people,” Harold said.

Now that the bill has an official number, it will likely go to the Judiciary Committee to be discussed this fall. Harold is encouraging anyone who believes in the law change to contact your state representative.

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