Background: The Hardin County Detention Center in Elizabethtown, Kentucky (Google Maps). Inset: Ava Washington (Hardin County Detention Center).
A woman in Kentucky is accused of striking her vulnerable father and allowing him to sit in his own filth until her own husband turned her in.
Ava Washington, 47, has been charged with wanton abuse or neglect of an adult, jail records reviewed by Law&Crime show. She was released from the Hardin County Detention Center days ago with her trial to come this fall.
The defendant was arrested in December by the Hardin County Sheriff”s Office, but the allegations stretch back two months prior.
On Oct. 2, 2025, a man called the law enforcement agency and reported that his wife had been abusing her father, who has dementia, The News-Enterprise reported. This witness’s wife — Washington — was the alleged victim’s main caregiver, authorities said.
The man reportedly said that he had a recording of the abuse, which showed the older man sitting on the edge of a bed trying to put on clothes. According to an arrest citation, Washington started yelling at her father and then hit him in his groin area with the back of her hand.
Washington allegedly continued yelling at her father and struck him two more times in the same area.
Hardin County Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Teresa Logsdon said the father was placed in the care of the state. She also relayed the allegations in the case.
“She walks in and strikes him at least twice, maybe three times in the private area. I know that she feels like these allegations have been made by somebody that it’s retaliatory or something of that nature,” Logsdon said of Washington, per the regional newspaper. “Apparently, the caregiving in this particular case was not good. There were other complaints that he was found in his own feces and urine, that he had feces under his fingernails, and that he was eating with his hands.”
Washington’s attorney believes “she has a very solid chance of being found not guilty,” and he noted that she has dealt with health problems during her jailing in the detention center.
The defendant is set to go to trial on Oct. 13.
