Feds charge 2 men with hate crimes in Beaver County care-home abuse case

Two men already charged in Beaver County now face federal hate-crime counts, with prosecutors accusing them of abusing physically and intellectually disabled residents at a care home where they worked.

An indictment against the men said they punched and kicked residents in the face, choked them and sprayed and rubbed caustic substances in their eyes and mouths. The men often used cellphones to record the abuses and exchanged text messages describing their violent acts, the indictment said.

The indictment said at least 13 residents were abused, including seven who required the use of a wheelchair. Many were nonverbal and unable to defend themselves or report the alleged abuse, according to the indictment.

Zachary Dinell, 28, currently behind bars at the State Correctional Institution at Fayette, and Tyler Smith, 31, of New Brighton, were charged in a 12-count indictment unsealed Thursday in federal court.

The court filing said the two men worked at McGuire Memorial, a residential medical facility in Beaver County’s Daugherty Township that has about 50 patients.

Smith, who began working there in May 2015, and Dinell, who started in June 2016, were employed as members of the direct care staff, assisting residents with daily tasks such as bathing, feeding, dressing and oral hygiene.

The indictment said the men “exploited their one-on-one access to residents of McGuire Memorial to engage in violent, demeaning and humiliating acts against the residents because of the residents’ physical and mental disabilities.”

The alleged abuse occurred from June 2016 to September 2017.

In a news conference Friday, U.S. Attorney Cindy Chung said McGuire cared for some of the most vulnerable people in our population.

“While not all abuse cases are federal crimes, it is a federal crime to target people because of their actual or perceived disability,” she said. “I regard civil rights enforcement as one of the highest priorities in this district.”

The indictment accuses Smith and Dinell of seeking to cause extreme pain and protracted impairment and doing so in a way that any resulting visible injuries could be attributed to the residents’ disabilities.

Text messages between the two defendants showed them bragging about the abuses they were committing, the indictment said.

Dinell recorded an incident in which he sprayed a resident lying naked on a shower table with cold water and then sent the video to Smith, the indictment said. He also recorded himself kicking a resident in the head, punching residents in the face and head, choking them and throwing irritants in their mouths and eyes, according to the indictment.

In a March 5, 2017, recording, Smith jumped on top of a 13-year-old resident lying on his bed, the indictment said.

The defendants texted each other about “sanitizing” the residents’ eyes and killing them, according to the indictment.

On March 7, 2017, Dinell wrote to Smith, “I‘m going to (expletive) murder (a particular resident),” the indictment said. “I choked the (expletive) out of him, and now he’s coughing and yelling.”

Smith responded, “(Expletive) kill him dude, he’s better off.”

Both men were charged in Beaver County Common Pleas Court in the summer of 2019.

Smith pleaded no contest to one count of endangering the welfare of children in January 2021 and was ordered to serve two years of probation.

He was arraigned Thursday on the federal charges and released on bond.

Dinell pleaded guilty in Beaver County to 13 counts of neglect of a care-dependent person, one count of endangering the welfare of children and 14 counts of invasion of privacy. He was ordered to serve 10-1/2 to 31 years in prison.

Dinell later filed a motion to withdraw his plea. In January, the state Superior Court remanded the case to Beaver County and ordered that the motion to withdraw Dinell’s plea be granted.

In November 2019, four families filed a lawsuit against McGuire over the abuse allegations, and it has since been settled. Terms of the settlement are sealed.

Two families said that their loved ones, Brian D. Short, 36, and Nicholas E. Maravich, 39, died of pneumonia in 2017 after developing an infection caused when they aspirated water that Dinell threw into their faces.

Chung said that McGuire has cooperated throughout the investigation.

On Friday, McGuire President and CEO Christopher Shay thanked the U.S. attorney’s office and FBI for “bringing further justice” to their community.

“The advocacy, safety, health and well-being of the children and adults served at McGuire Memorial is, and always will be, our number one priority,” Shay said in a statement, adding that he hoped the announcement will help the residents and their families move forward with continued healing.