By Paul Pinkham
Morris News Service

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.

Sandra Banning tries to remember her mother's spunk, friendship and devotion to her family.

She can't forget, however, that her 77-year-old mom was raped in 2002 by a repeat sex offender living in the same Jacksonville nursing home she was. It makes her "mad as hell," she said, that her family was never informed about his criminal background.

In late July, flanked by her lawyer and a state senator, Banning called for legislation requiring Florida nursing homes to notify residents and their families when convicted sex offenders are living among them.

"We have to change the law, and I won't stop until it happens," said Banning, whose mother died in November of unrelated causes. "I'll talk to whomever will listen."

Banning's news conference came on the heels of a national study released this month by the California-based elder rights group A Perfect Cause that found 380 registered sex offenders living in nursing homes around the country, including 30 in Florida and five in Georgia. Two of those offenders live in a Jacksonville nursing home, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which lists more than 1,500 sexual offenders and predators overall in Duval County.

Banning's mother, Virginia Thurston, was living in Southwood Nursing Center in Arlington when, according to Jacksonville police, staff caught 83-year-old Ivy H. Edwards raping her in her room.

Based on the eyewitnesses and a rape exam, Edwards was charged with sexual battery but found incompetent to stand trial and sent to Florida State Hospital in Chattahoochee.

Edwards has a lengthy criminal record dating back to 1945, including convictions in the 1960s for molesting a child in Jacksonville and a sexual assault in Sarasota, according to FDLE. But Banning and her lawyer said the nursing home never informed residents and their families about Edwards' background and didn't have to under Florida law.

"This should never have happened, and we hope to inspire law to ensure that it never happens again," said attorney Jeff Morrow. "This is a titanic loophole ... that needs to be closed."

State Sen. Durell Peaden, R-Crestview, said at the news conference that he is drafting legislation to require nursing homes to do criminal background checks on prospective residents, notify residents and their families about sex offenders and sequester repeat offenders from the general population.