Tag: Peninsula

The former employee of a San Mateo assisted living facility who left a pitcher of toxic cleaning fluid in the kitchen that another employee mistook for juice and served to residents — resulting in the deaths of two 93-year-olds — was sentenced Friday to 40 days in county jail and two years supervised probation.

Alisia Rivera Mendoza, 38, was also ordered to complete 350 hours of community service, including speaking to those working in the care industry to warn them against her mistake, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.

In August, Rivera Mendoza pleaded no contest to one felony count of elder abuse in exchange for no time in state prison and a maximum sentence of one year in county jail, prosecutors said. Rivera Mendoza’s sentence can also be reduced to a misdemeanor after one year of complying with probation.

She was originally charged in 2023 with two counts of felony involuntary manslaughter and three counts of felony elder abuse.

Rivera Mendoza’s sentence was imposed by San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Michael Wendler, who also denied a defense motion that would have immediately reduced the charge to a misdemeanor.

San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe said Monday that Wendler’s sentence was “thoughtful,” as Rivera Mendoza does not have a prior criminal record and the mistake was not intentional.

“Forty days on its face does sound low, but what Judge Wendler has done is taken what might have been a longer jail sentence and converted that into public service hours — that 350 hours of public service work is what he felt was more appropriate for punishment, because 350 hours is a substantial number of days,” Wagstaffe said. “I am not dissatisfied with the sentence.”

Wagstaffe added that Rivera Mendoza has shown remorse for the incident.

Rivera Mendoza’s defense attorney, Josh Bentley, did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

Rivera Mendoza is also not permitted to work in assisted living or elder care in the future, must pay $370 in fines and fees and will pay restitution in an amount to be determined. She also cannot possess ammunition, weapons or body armor and is subject to search and seizure.

Atria Park of San Mateo was understaffed on the morning of Aug. 28, 2022 when Rivera Mendoza poured cleaning fluid into a pitcher on the kitchen counter with the intention of using it to clean the kitchen, prosecutors said.

When Rivera Mendoza went to serve breakfast to the facility’s residents, she left the pitcher on the counter. Another employee mistook the pitcher of cleaning fluid for juice and poured it into three residents’ glasses, prosecutors said.

The three residents, thinking the liquid poured into their glasses was juice, drank it, prosecutors added.

The three residents – 93-year-old Gertrude Maxwell, 93-year-old Peter Schroder Jr. and Richard Fong – “immediately went into serious distress” after taking just a few sips of the liquid, prosecutors said. Emergency services reported to the scene to provide aid, but Maxwell and Schroeder died due to ingestion of the toxic cleaning fluid.

Both Maxwell and Schroder suffered from extremely painful blisters on their mouths before they died, their families said. Fong survived drinking the fluid, prosecutors added.

This is not the only case of seniors dying after ingesting toxic fluids while in Bay Area assisted living facilities. A 94-year-old man, Constantine Canoun, died in 2022 after drinking an all-purpose cleaner he found in an unlocked cabinet and mistook for a sugary beverage at Atria Walnut Creek. An employee was similarly charged with felony elder abuse in that case.

In another case, a 55-year-old paraplegic man alleged that Diablo Valley Post Acute, a nursing home in Concord where he was staying for six weeks while recovering from surgery, gave him a bleach-based wound-cleaning solution in a cup to wash down his pills.

In 2022, the family of Schroder filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Atria that also alleged negligence and elder abuse. The lawsuit alleged that a lack of staff contributed to his death. That same year, Maxwell’s family filed a separate wrongful death lawsuit alleging that Atria attempted to cover up the third death at its Walnut Creek facility.

Wagstaffe added that the families of the two victims did not have “heavy animus toward” Rivera Mendoza.

“They were more concerned about Atria and the fact that they were understaffed,” Wagstaffe said, adding that there was insufficient evident to prosecute Atria in this case.

Kathryn Stebner, the attorney who represented the Schroder family, said that Rivera Mendoza’s sentence is sad to both her and the Schroder family. The family’s wrongful death lawsuit was settled in early 2025, she added.

“She’s basically a scapegoat in the face of (Atria’s) continuous wrongdoing. To point the finger at her is just not right,” Stebner said. “The real culprits were the corporation, not this poor woman who was overworked, underpaid and the scapegoat of Atria.”

The California Department of Social Services also fined Atria $39,500 for the two deaths and one hospitalization and in 2023 was considering revoking the care facility’s license. At the time, the company appealed the department’s decision.

As of November, Atria Park of San Mateo had a “probationary” license status, according to the Department of Social Services.