The judge told Randy Gaitor that if he successfully completed a year of probation, he would consider terminating his sentence. Monday, Nov. 28, the judge granted Gaitor’s request.
Because Gaitor, 48, was sentenced under the First Offender Act, there won’t be a conviction on his record for the felony offense of operating a personal care home without a license, which he was discovered doing, according to an investigation by the now disband personal-care-home task force.
Gaitor lost his state license to operate a personal care home after a series of critical inspection reports that included potentially fatal deficiencies. In 2014 he reportedly left an 82-year-old blind dementia patient on the doorstep of the Salvation Army, and in 2015 a 78-year-old patient at his home turned up at the Veterans Administration after a five-mile walk using his walker. Also in 2015, two other patients turned up missing, one of whom was found asleep on a railroad track.
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In 2018 after the personal-care-home task force members went to a Wrightsboro Road address to investigate a possible unlicensed home, the found a disabled adult alone. Gaitor returned to the home with a second disabled adult while task force members were there, and a Richmond County Sheriff’s deputy also arrived at the home with a third disabled adult found wandering on the John C. Calhoun Expressway, according to media reports.
Gaitor was indicted on three charges – operating an unlicensed personal care home, exploitation of a vulnerable adult and neglect of a vulnerable adult. Charges were reduced last year, and Gaitor pleaded guilty in Richmond County Superior Court to a single charge. He was sentenced Oct. 28, 2021, to three years on probation. Judge John Flythe said at the hearing he would consider an early termination after one year.
Monday, defense attorney Kimberly Wilder asked the judge to grant that termination. Gaitor had no other criminal history, he has paid all of his fine and court costs, and he hasn’t had any violations while on probation. He wants to be able to get a business license, travel outside the country and serve his church, none of which he do with the felony on his record, Wilder said.
