The Vermont Attorney General’s Office announced Monday, June 23 that Dexter Agasi, 55, of Rutland, has been arraigned on two misdemeanor counts of Abuse of a Vulnerable Adult following an alleged incident at a local residential care facility.

The charges stem from an investigation led by the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud and Residential Abuse Unit (MFRAU), with support from the Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living’s Division of Licensing and Protection (DLP).

According to the affidavit of probable cause, the alleged abuse took place in April while Agasi was employed as the house manager at Our House Too, a residential care home in Rutland. Prosecutors allege that Agasi threatened an elderly resident with advanced dementia, grabbed the resident by the neck, confined the resident, and ignored pleas for help.

Agasi pleaded not guilty to both charges during an arraignment Monday in Vermont Superior Court, Rutland Unit, Criminal Division. Judge Cortland Corsones ordered Agasi released on his own recognizance.

Under Vermont law, each count of misdemeanor abuse of a vulnerable adult carries a maximum penalty of up to two years in prison, a $2,000 fine, or both.