Caregiver criminally charged with dependent adult abuse of autistic teenager

Jul 30, 2026 | 9:00 am ET

By Clark Kauffman

Caregiver criminally charged with dependent adult abuse of autistic teenager

Iowa Workforce Development manages unemployment claims filed on behalf of Iowans. (Photo by Getty Images, logo courtesy the State of Iowa)

A central Iowa caregiver accused of kicking and punching an autistic teenager is now facing criminal charges of dependent adult abuse.

State records indicate Falisha Turner, 47, of Des Moines was employed by as a care professional by Home Instead, an in-home care provider, earlier this year. The company provides daily living assistance for people with disabilities, usually in residential settings.

According to court and state unemployment records, Turner was driving a home-care client on March 14, 2026, when she was pulled over by police, who informed her there was an arrest warrant for her related to an incident that had occurred days earlier when Turner was working for a different company. She was then charged with dependent adult abuse.

Court records indicate Turner was accused by police of punching an 18-year-old autistic woman in the face “multiple times in the face, and kicking her in the chest, causing physical injury.” The incident allegedly happened at a Waukee residence owned by Watchtower Investment Group, a company that provides affordable housing for people with disabilities.

Two days after her arrest, Turner was fired from Home Instead after being placed on the state’s adult abuse registry, which made it impossible for her maintain employment as a caregiver for that or any other Iowa company. A judge later denied Turner’s application for unemployment benefits, citing her placement on the registry.

Turner has pleaded not guilty to the charge of dependent adult abuse and a pretrial conference is scheduled for Sept. 11, 2026.

Turner told the Iowa Capital Dispatch that a state abuse investigator told her there was video of her attacking the alleged victim and that a supervisor had also witnessed the incident. Turner said she was never shown any video and that she suspects the supervisor fabricated the allegations to cover up her own role in the matter.

“I never punched that lady. I never punched her, I never choked her, I never chased her,” Turner said, adding that there had been a physical altercation that resulted in her trying to “break free” of the teenager who was grabbing at her clothes, neck and hair.

“The only thing I tried to do was run out the door,” Turner said.

Other recent unemployment cases

Other Iowans recently accused of workplace misconduct include:

— Haley Sly, who worked as a certified medication aide for Accura Healthcare of Cascade, a nursing home, until she was fired on May 1, 2026. State records show the facility alleged Sly had asked a resident of the home to come to the dining room to eat dinner, and that the resident declined. A certified nursing aide later alleged Sly grabbed the resident and pulled them up out of their chair and forcibly transported them to the dining table. The home’s administration investigated the matter and found that the resident had sustained “substantial bruising” due to Sly’s rough handling.

Sly was fired and applied for unemployment benefits, which led to a recent hearing before Administrative Law Judge Elizabeth Johnson. In ruling that Sly was ineligible for benefits, Johnson stated that Sly’s conduct amounted to abuse and a violation of workplace rules. She also ordered Sly to repay the $3,570 in unemployment benefits already collected.

— Alexander Gully, who worked as a full-time paraeducator at Butler Elementary School in the Fort Dodge Community School District from August 2023 through May 2026, when he was fired. The district alleged that while removing a fifth-grade student with special needs from the classroom due to misbehavior, Gully hoisted the 10-year-old child off the floor by one of the child’s arms, then carried the child in that manner while exiting the room and placing the child in a hallway chair. Gully’s alleged handling of the child left marks on the child’s arm, which triggered a complaint by the child’s mother.

Administrative Law Judge James Timberland recently ruled Gully was ineligible for unemployment benefits due to workplace misconduct. Gully, Timberland ruled, had chosen to disregard the district’s deescalation protocols “and elected instead to handle a 10-year-old student in a physically abusive manner in violation of district policy. There was no excuse or justification for (his) conduct.”