ST. PAUL, Minn. —  An aide at a Minnesota nursing home was accused of tormenting six residents sexually, physically and emotionally for months before being fired, according to a state health department report released Wednesday. It's the second recent investigation of nursing home abuse in the state.

The report states that a female aide abused residents at Luther Haven Nursing Home in Montevideo for about six months before a nursing assistant told a supervisor in July what she had seen. The aide's name was not disclosed.

The case echoes another in Albert Lea in southern Minnesota, where six nursing assistants allegedly spit into the mouths of residents with dementia, poked their breasts and touched their genitals. Two female aides face criminal abuse and assault charges; four others were charged as juveniles for not reporting the alleged abuse.

At the home in Montevideo, just west of Minneapolis, the aide probed the genitals of a resident with vulvar cancer, performed lap dances for two male residents and made sexual advances toward one of the men, including baring her breasts while getting him ready for bed, the Health Department report said.

Five of the six victims have Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia. The female victim with cancer died before the abuse was reported.

Other allegations of maltreatment included dropping a resident about four feet onto a bed, slapping a resident while calling her names including a racial slur, and emotionally tormenting a resident by throwing stuffed animals the woman believed to be her children on the floor.

The report said the home investigated the incidents and reported them to state authorities as soon as the abuse was revealed July 9. The aide was suspended that day and fired two weeks later.

The aide was interviewed by the Health Department and denied the allegations.

James Flaherty, an administrator at the home, didn't immediately return a message left after business hours Wednesday.

Authorities said charges against the former aide are unlikely because the victims' dementia limits their ability to testify.

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