PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A South Jersey nurse has pleaded guilty to assaulting a resident with pepper spray at a nursing home in Ocean County.
Lisa Erikson confessed to pepper-spraying an elderly man with dementia, depression and anxiety multiple times on March 19, 2025, leaving him on the floor to crawl to another resident’s room where he could stand up again.
Erikson and another nurse then forcibly removed the man from the other resident’s room and put him in his own room without providing any aid. He later received help from police and emergency crews that responded to the facility and took him to the hospital.
New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport called the 57-year-old’s actions “deeply disturbing.”
Erikson pleaded guilty to second-degree aggravated assault, third-degree neglect of an elderly adult and third-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose. As part of the plea deal, she must permanently give up her nursing license.
Erikson will be sentenced in November. The Attorney General’s office recommends a year in county jail.
