Paradigm: What is Happening Behind Closed Doors?

There are now 26 registered sex offenders living at Paradigm at the Oak nursing home in Schulenburg.

This is the greatest number of sex offenders residing at the facility since the Record began tracking it early this year after learning about a sexual assault that took place there. In April, a Fayette County Grand Jury indicted 75-yearold Kenneth Buel Williams Jr. for sexually assaulting a female resident at Paradigm at the Oak. The assault allegedly took place on or about Nov. 2, 2024. State investigators allege that the facility administrator, Pamela Noell, tried covering up the crime. The Record obtained an investigation report that said Noell instructed staff to not report the crime nor to seek medical care for the victim.

Williams was a resident of the nursing home. He was also a registered sex offender. Williams was convicted of aggravated rape in Randall County in 1981.

The Record learned about the assault back in January. In February, we reported there were 23 registered sex offenders living at the Paradigm facility in Schulenburg, according to the Texas Sex Offender Public Registry. That number dropped to 17 in April. Last week the registry showed 26 sex offenders living there, all men. Their convictions range from aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault of a child, possession of child pornography, indecency with a child, incest with a five-year-old child, and more.

The facility is licensed for 90 beds. There were 70 people living there when Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) investigated the sexual assault last November. The information we obtained does not say how many of those were women.

Furthermore, the Record learned last week that another sexual assault took place at Paradigm in Schulenburg in 2022. According to Schulenburg Police Chief Troy Brenek, the perpetrator and the victim in the 2022 assault were both residents. Brenek said the perpetrator in that case was also a previously- convicted sex offender. Brenek said the facility did report it to authorities that time.

Sexual assaults are not the only risk facing residents at Paradigm in Schulenburg. The records we obtained earlier this year detail numerous other issues negatively affecting the residents’ quality of life. In one case, the facility failed to fix a water leak that caused one resident’s closet to flood.

“(The resident’s) closet floor was warped from moisture and there were dirty soaked towels lining the floor of the closet,” the report said.

A state inspector interviewed that resident, who told the inspector that the leaky water made his clothes smell bad and made him feel humiliated to wear them.

“I am not a dirty person,” the resident told the investigator. “But I bet that is what people think of me.”

The resident said he had asked the facility to fix the leak “forever” because it “embarrassed him to live like that.”

A state inspector in 2023 documented a resident who had trouble eating. The inspector said the resident had difficulty picking up food from a plate using utensils and dropped some to the floor. The inspector observed the resident pick the food up off the floor and eat it. The resident’s care plan called for him to eat from a divided plate, but the facility failed to provide it for him. Instead, staff seated him in the dining room facing a wall with his back to the other residents.

Another 2023 inspection documented leaky faucets in residents’ rooms, missing hot water knobs, inadequate water pressure, and unsanitary conditions in the kitchen.

In all cases, the facility stated in the report that it “neither confirms nor denies alleged violation,” but then goes on to state how the issues were corrected.

The Record has attempted to contact Paradigm Healthcare numerous times to comment on this story. The company, which is based in Illinois, has never responded. We emailed them again last week to ask what safeguards are in place to protect innocent residents from the sex offenders living there. Again, they have not responded.

State Senator Lois Kolkhorst, who represents Fayette County, serves as the chairwoman of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, which oversees nursing home regulation. We reached out to Sen. Kolkhorst for comment on this story as well. Her staff said Kolkhorst was looking into the matter and would respond once she gathers information.