The contested omnibus hearing scheduled Tuesday for one of the young women charged as an adult in the alleged abuse case at Good Samaritan Society of Albert Lea has been continued again.

A new court date for the young woman, Ashton Larson, 19, has not yet been rescheduled, a scheduler with Freeborn County Court Administration said Monday morning.

County Attorney Craig Nelson said his office was notified that Jolene Bertelsen, the Minnesota Department of Health investigator involved in the case, is on a leave of absence from the Office of Health Facility Complaints and would not be available to attend the hearing scheduled. Bertelsen is expected to be one of the witnesses available for questioning.

As a result, Larson’s lawyer requested the continuance so that all of the investigators involved could be present at the same time, Nelson said. The judge agreed with the request.

Larson and co-defendant Brianna Broitzman, 19, each face charges of at least 10 counts of fifth-degree assault, criminal abuse of a vulnerable adult and mandated failure to report suspected abuse of multiple residents at the nursing home.

The charges came in December after an investigation into allegations of abuse by the Albert Lea Police Department, the Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office and the Minnesota Department of Health.

The contested omnibus hearing for Broitzman is still scheduled for May 29, the scheduler said.

At the upcoming contested omnibus hearings, Larson and Broitzman’s lawyers are expected to make arguments about the constitutionality of the statements made by their clients to investigators.

Both lawyers have filed motions in Freeborn County District Court asking to suppress their client’s statements and to dismiss the criminal complaints against them.

Larson’s lawyer, Evan Larson, also motioned to suppress evidence taken as a result of search and seizure “on the grounds that such was seized in violation of the defendant’s constitutional and statutory protections against unreasonable searches and seizures,” the court motion states.

He asked to be given the opportunity to inspect and reproduce any relevant written or recorded statements by his client, along with any “papers, documents, photographs and tangible objects which the prosecution intends to introduce as evidence at the trial,” according to court documents.

Details of the allegations surfaced last August after the release of the Department of Health’s report. It concluded four teenagers were involved in verbal, sexual and emotional abuse of 15 residents at the nursing home in Albert Lea. The residents suffered from mental degradation conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

In addition to the charges filed against these two young women, charges were also filed against four other young women, who were juveniles at the time, for mandatory failure to report suspected abuse. All are now adults.