Hospital Staffer Found Not Guilty In Assault Case

BALTIMORE (AP) -- A former staff member at the state's maximum-security psychiatric hospital has been acquitted of charges she assaulted a patient.

The Baltimore Sun reports that Rita Ward, 56, was found not guilty of assaulting Lori Shilling, 25, at Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center in Jessup.

Shilling claimed that Ward was one of two hospital workers who forcibly dragged her to her room in June of 2010.

Jurors in the case were shown security video of the incident, but one juror told the newspaper that the video wasn't clear enough to determine whether Shilling was forcibly dragged to her room.

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