A Beaver County man entered a guilty plea Thursday to federal charges accusing him of abusing physically and intellectually disabled residents at a care home.

U.S. District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan said he will reserve his decision to accept the plea until after he receives a presentence report on Zachary Dinell, 28, of Freedom.

If the judge accepts the plea, Dinell will be sentenced on Jan. 26.

Dinell entered his guilty plea to 12 counts, including conspiracy to violate the federal Hate Crimes Prevention Act and concealment of material facts related to health care matters.

As part of the plea deal, Dinell agreed to serve a sentence of 14 to 17 years in federal prison.

In addition, state court charges against him for the same conduct will be withdrawn, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Olshan.

Dinell is one of two men charged with abusing residents at McGuire Memorial, a residential medical facility in Daugherty Township, Beaver County, with about 50 patients.

Charges against Dinell’s co-defendant, Tyler Smith, of New Brighton, are still pending. A status conference in Smith’s case is scheduled for Jan. 3 before Ranjan.

Federal prosecutors said Dinell and Smith abused at least 13 residents, including seven who required the use of a wheelchair.

Several residents were nonverbal and unable to defend themselves or report the abuse, according to the indictment.

Dinell, who began working at the facility in June 2016, was part of the direct care staff, assisting residents with daily tasks such as dressing, feeding, bathing and oral hygiene.

The abuse occurred between June 2016 and September 2017, the government said.

At his hearing Thursday, Dinell admitted that he rubbed Purell hand sanitizer in the eyes of three residents, squirted mouthwash in the mouth and eyes of another resident and kicked another resident in the head.

The government said he also sprayed a resident lying naked on a shower table with cold water, then sent the video to Smith.

Dinell also recorded a video of himself kicking a resident in the head, punching residents in the face and head and choking them.

Dinell and Smith exchanged text messages about their actions against the residents and talked about “sanitizing” their eyes and killing them, the indictment said.

Both men were initially charged in Beaver County Common Pleas Court in 2019.

Dinell pleaded guilty there to 13 counts of neglect of a care-dependent person, one count of endangering the welfare of children and 14 counts of invasion of privacy. He was ordered to serve 10½ to 31 years in prison in June 2020.

But weeks later, he filed a motion to withdraw his plea.

The state Superior Court ordered that his motion be granted.

Olshan said Thursday that once the federal court sentence is imposed on Dinell, the Beaver County District Attorney’s office will withdraw the state charges against him.

A lawsuit filed in November 2019 by four families against McGuire over the abuse allegations has since been settled in a sealed agreement.

Two families said that residents Brian D. Short, 36, and Nicholas E. Maravich, 39, died of pneumonia in 2017 after they developed an infection when Dinell threw cold water in their faces causing them to aspirate.

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