Overview
- The criminal trial began on Thursday, June 4, 2026, at the Landgericht Braunschweig with four defendants facing more than 50 hearing dates through January 2027 and charges that include mistreatment of dependents, dangerous bodily harm, aggravated deprivation of liberty and commercial gang fraud.
- Prosecutors say residents were regularly sedated, very mobile patients were confined behind raised bed rails, and health reports were falsified to increase revenue, actions they describe as part of a long-running ‘Herrschaftsregime’.
- The indictment targets an operating couple and two senior staff members: prosecutors allege 17 counts against three defendants and 14 counts of complicity by a fourth, with one accused manager described as the pair’s ‘extended arm’.
- Local records show repeated complaints to the Landkreis Goslar since 2005–2006, four fines and three official orders including past bans on management; leadership was replaced after a 2020 complaint and one manager was detained in August 2020, and local reporting says the owners sold the home in 2021 and moved to Mallorca.
- The county says the facility now runs in an orderly way and residents have greater freedom, and the trial will determine criminal accountability while highlighting gaps between long-standing administrative sanctions and the later criminal case.