FARMINGTON – Handcuffed yet smiling, a Genesis Healthcare-Sandy River administrator stayed in good spirits as Franklin County detectives executed a mock-arrest on Wednesday.

“I was framed,” he said, shaking his handcuffed arms, then jokingly warning his staff, “You’re going down.”

Robert Straznitskas, 39, donned an apron to cook hamburgers for his staff as part of National Nursing Home week. But they had other plans for him.

When Detectives Tom White and Dave St. Laurent from Franklin County Sheriff’s Department showed up with an arrest warrant for him, his smile only disappeared for a moment.

As his staff stood around chuckling, he played right along as White read the warrant to him, then arrested him on a charge of impersonating a health care administrator while St. Laurent handcuffed him.

Giving Straznitskas a $25 cash bail, White supplied a number for staff members to call to let him out or else he’d be staying at Franklin County Detention Center, White said.

Straznitskas was also given a survival kit by staff members to take to jail. Along with a granola bar, the kit included phone numbers of sister facilities and the home office so he could call and raise bail money, said Joy Welch who along with Lynette Hinkley planned the event.

The bail he was calling for was much more than $25. The goal was closer to $500 as the arrest was a fundraiser for Sandy River’s annual Alzheimer’ walk planned for Sept. 26, Welch said.

Staff members from Franklin Savings Bank, Pizza Hut, ICT and Sandy River meet once a month to plan and organize the walk and fundraisers throughout the summer. A plant sale is planned for Memorial Day weekend at Sandy River.

In July, 200 plastic ducks will be released into the stream behind Sandy River for a fundraising duck race.

The walk itself draws community members along with employees from the sponsors with raised funds going toward programs and events for Alzheimer patients in Maine, Welch said.

Straznitskas was back at work by mid-afternoon and “addressing staff,” a chuckling Welch said later.

“Some guy at the jail felt sorry for him and threw $10 at him to help with bail,” Welch added.

Prior to the arrest, Straznitskas said the cookout was being held because “we appreciate staff all the time but especially this week.” Nursing Home week is being celebrated with daily activities for the staff.