More than five years ago, 88-year-old Mabel Taylor left her room at a Robinson nursing home and made her way through a door leading to a fenced outdoor courtyard.

	Martha F. Bell

Alarms failed to ring when the door opened and then slammed shut, trapping Mrs. Taylor, who had Alzheimer's disease, outside on a 40-degree night. Workers discovered her body on a sidewalk the next morning.

Now the former administrator of that now-defunct nursing and personal care home is scheduled to go on trial in Mrs. Taylor's death on Oct. 26, 2001.

Jury selection is to begin today in the trial of Martha F. Bell, who founded and ran the Ronald Reagan Atrium I Nursing, Research and Rehabilitation Center. Mrs. Bell, 60, of West Mifflin, is charged with neglect of a care-dependent person, involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment, conspiracy and theft of payroll funds.

In a rare step, Allegheny County prosecutors also have charged Atrium's parent corporation, the Alzheimer's Disease Alliance of Western Pennsylvania, with neglect of a care-dependent person, involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment. Mrs. Bell headed the corporation.

The state closed Atrium in January 2004.

The trial may take several weeks. Attorneys for Mrs. Bell and Atrium could not be reached last week.

A separate trial for former Atrium nursing director Kathy Galati, 61, of the North Side, is scheduled for Jan. 16. She faces charges of conspiracy, perjury and other allegations.

The felony neglect charge was filed for the first time in the Atrium case by Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. This 12-year-old statute is intended for cases in which an individual or institution harmed a helpless person not only by action but by inaction.

The law is infrequently applied because of the difficulty of proving cases in which victims may be frail, elderly and incompetent to assist investigators or testify.

But Mr. Zappala said Mrs. Taylor's case has spurred his staff to devote more time and resources to finding and investigating elder abuse and neglect cases and to work more closely with state and federal regulators who oversee nursing homes.

"What this case did was cause us to change our processes,'' he said.

"It seems like this facility should have been closed on several occasions prior to [Mrs. Taylor's death]. There were a number of complaints about it, but not until someone died [did it reach] a law enforcement standpoint. Now we're looking for problems."

Mr. Zappala said he plans to approach the Area Agency on Aging and law officers about assembling a task force to curb physical and financial abuse of the elderly.

He said he sought but did not receive money in this year's county budget for four positions for forensic accountants and fraud investigators. But, he said, he still hopes to fund those positions through grants or proceeds from gun forfeitures.

Mr. Zappala said his office and law officers are investigating several cases in which elderly people have been victimized, although he declined to be specific about their nature. Another facility voluntarily closed after complaints to police about conditions there prompted him to order a grand jury inquiry, he said.

He also pointed to recent theft and forgery charges filed against two employees of the Cedarwood Personal Care facility in West Deer, which the state Department of Public Welfare has ordered to close.

"We're getting a lot of questions about fraud," Mr. Zappala said. "If we start looking for these kinds of issues, I think we're going to find them."

County authorities filed charges in Mrs. Taylor's death in 2003. But trial dates for Mrs. Bell, Ms. Galati and the Alliance have been postponed several times because of changes in legal counsel and conflicts with other cases stemming from Mrs. Bell's eight-year tenure as head of the Atrium home.

"In a personal sense, I'm anxious to get it behind me. But as time has gone on, I think people are now aware that this can happen to you and they are more aggressive about what they want for their loved ones,'' said Mrs. Taylor's daughter, Jane Baczewski, of Hopewell.

Once touted as a model for treatment and care of residents with Alzheimer's disease, Atrium opened in 1995 off Campbell's Run Road in Robinson.

With 170 beds, Atrium featured courtyards with looping paths that contained no dead ends to frustrate residents with dementia. Alarms were supposed to sound when doors opened to the outdoors.

But testimony in numerous court proceedings indicated that no alarm rang when Mrs. Taylor slipped into a courtyard and that some workers disabled alarms, in violation of Atrium and state regulations, to step outdoors and smoke without discovery.

An autopsy determined that Mrs. Taylor, a great-grandmother who enjoyed putting together puzzles and singing hymns, died of heart disease aggravated by exposure. Mrs. Baczewski said she initially was told her mother died "peacefully in bed'' but later learned she died outside.

Prosecutors allege that Mrs. Bell persuaded Ms. Galati, who was the supervisor on duty, to drag Mrs. Taylor's body back to her bed, turn up the heat in her room to warm the body and falsify records to conceal how Mrs. Taylor died.

An investigation of Mrs. Taylor's death by county police and the former coroner's office later expanded to include other allegations of neglect and understaffing at Atrium.

In 2005, Mrs. Bell and Atrium were convicted in U.S. District Court of health care fraud and making false statements about health care matters. In that case, prosecutors charged that Mrs. Bell and Atrium accepted and spent money from health care programs, then faked thousands of medical and financial records to conceal their failure to provide appropriate care.

In October, U.S. District Judge Terrence F. McVerry sentenced Mrs. Bell to five years in prison and ordered her to pay $50,000 in fines. He fined the Atrium corporation $490,000.

Mrs. Bell plans to appeal those convictions. She has remained free while preparing for her trial in Mrs. Taylor's death.

Mrs. Bell also faces additional proceedings in a lawsuit filed last year by state Attorney General Tom Corbett against Atrium, three related corporations and corporate officers regarding use of financial gifts from dead donors.