Casper caregiver accused of tying patient’s head to a bed

Casper (WNE) — A Casper-based care provider has been charged with abuse of a vulnerable adult and false imprisonment after other employees alleged she tied a patient’s head to her bed to get the patient to stop moving. 

At the time of the alleged offense, Julie Cross, 50, was working at NOWCAP Services in north Casper. 

Authorities issued a warrant for Cross on Wednesday, according to court documents. 

Casper Police spokeswoman Rebekah Ladd said Cross was arrested on a warrant Friday morning. 

Cross was charged in relation to a July 14 incident, an affidavit filed with the charges indicated. An attendant told authorities she arrived at work that morning and while on her rounds found a female patient with her pants down and her pants around her knees. While pulling them up, the staff member noticed the patient’s head was tied to her bedframe by a blue scarf, according to the filing, which was signed by Casper Police Officer Sarah Price. 

Price wrote a second staff member corroborated that the patient’s head had been tied to the bed with multiple knots, adding it took the duo roughly five minutes to free the patient. 

They also noted that as of that Monday, the patient appeared to have not been bathed over the weekend, citing matted, smelly hair. 

In a phone call with Price, Cross told the officer she tied a scarf around the patient’s hair because it was interfering with caring for the patient and ascribed the patient’s inability to move her head to the scarf becoming tangled.

 “She believes that [the patient] was tossing her head side-to-side and the scarf got wrapped around again,” according to the affidavit. 

One of the reporting attendants also showed Price photos of the scarf tied to the patient and the bed. NOWCAP’s director declined to comment on Cross’s employment status with the facility on Thursday afternoon. 

This story was published on July 26, 2025.