Ex-home health aide pleads guilty to sexually assaulting Pittsburgh client
A former home health aide pleaded guilty Monday to institutional sexual assault for abusing a Pittsburgh woman for whom she worked.
Vanessa C. Callender, 31, of Dormont will be sentenced May 29 by Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Elliot Howsie.
The victim uses a motorized wheelchair and requires in-home care for 16 hours per day,
According to the prosecution, Callender began working as an aide for the victim in May.
On June 28, according to Assistant District Attorney Edward Scheid, Callender helped get the woman ready for bed in her Brookline apartment.
It was then, Scheid said, that she sexually assaulted the victim.
The woman reported what happened to her to Bright Star Care of Southwestern Pennsylvania, based in Castle Shannon, and to the police.
Callender, who had begun working for Bright Star in January, admitted to what she had done, Scheid said.
She was fired by the agency.
Paula Reed Ward is a TribLive reporter covering federal and Allegheny County courts. She joined the Trib in 2020 after spending nearly 17 years at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where she was part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team. She is the author of "Death by Cyanide." She can be reached at pward@triblive.com.
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