Care centers bear history of abuse

Nolan Clay, Randy Ellis

12/17/2000

From Alva to Ada, and Lawton to Miami, OK, the frail, elderly and mentally handicapped across Oklahoma have been beaten, tortured, humiliated, raped, and financially and sexually exploited.

One paralysis victim was forced to taste his own urine. A mentally retarded man was treated like a dog and tossed cookies to eat off the floor. An elderly woman was struck in the face with a rag doll that - in her confused state - she believed was her own baby.

Sadly, their abusers were their caretakers - the same employees hired at nursing homes and care centers to see to their every need.

As Oklahoma's ugly Health Department scandal continues to unfold, the human cost of the agency's compromised oversight is becoming excruciatingly clear.

Not only have patients at many nursing homes and institutions for the mentally retarded received substandard care, records show many patients also have suffered physical and emotional abuse.

The Oklahoman looked at 86 criminal cases against nurse aides, nurses and administrators from just the last three years. A detailed examination of these felony and misdemeanor cases showed:

• The abuse was not limited to private homes. An Enid center for the mentally retarded, operated by the state Department of Human Services, has a history of problems.

Most abusers end up with probation and small fines under plea agreements, even some of those charged with sexual offenses, The Oklahoman found.

Eight were ordered to county jails for short stays. Two were sentenced to a year in the county jail for abuse but both were also being punished for other crimes.

Sometimes, abusers were required to surrender their caretakers' certificates and promise to never again work in a care center as a condition of their plea agreements. Often, no such conditions were attached.

Abusers are supposed to be weeded out because employers are required to check out aide applicants. Employers look to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation for criminal backgrounds and to the Health Department, which maintains a list of abusers.

Among those getting light punishment was caretaker Trevor Dale Clark, who was accused of sexually attacking six female mentally retarded residents at the McCall's Chapel School in Ada.

A male resident said he witnessed two of the attacks and Clark threatened to "kill him and the other clients with a knife" if the attacks were reported.

Clark, 26, ultimately pleaded guilty to only one count of sexual battery, under an agreement with prosecutors. He was handed a five-year suspended sentence, with 60 days to serve in the county jail.

Attorney General Drew Edmondson, whose office investigated most of the abuse cases, said a new attitude is needed.

"We need to work on everybody's sensitivity to these kinds of cases the same way we have on child abuse and domestic abuse type cases. They are very serious," he said.

"Recently, we have had more help from the Department of Health than we have historically. With some luck and some perseverance, the heightened scrutiny by the Department of Health may cut down on instances of abuse."

He agrees the lack of scrutiny in the past made abuse more likely.

"I have said from the outset that when you are lax on inspections and sanctions, it sends a message. I believe it has had an impact on resident care."

The accused aides with little education included some high school dropouts, The Oklahoman found.

The aides who misused alcohol or drugs included one who admitted smoking pot in the car outside work on the day of the abuse. Another struck residents just after returning from four weeks off for treatment at an alcohol rehabilitation center.

Others had suffered abuse themselves and struggled with mental illness or depression.

One longtime aide, Carolyn Sue Simon, pleaded guilty to hitting a 54-year-old resident in the mouth at Billings Fairchild Center. Afterward, she told of being abused by both parents as a child and through three failed marriages. "Simon advised the abuse was so severe that she received numerous broken bones during her youth," according to a report prepared for her sentencing.

"It upsets me that I did that," Simon, 46, said after pleading guilty. "I love the clients. I feel bad that I lost control."

She blamed her problems on alcoholism and stress.

Another aide, Alex Hagood, was just four months out of high school when he attacked a 75-year-old resident at the Putnam City Convalescent Center.

Jurors found Hagood, now 22, guilty of attempted rape and he is serving a seven-year sentence.

Paul Harvey Ward, 43, became a supervisor at the now-closed Choctaw Living Center even though he was on probation for a grand larceny charge, dropped out of high school and had earlier job experience only as a car salesman and mortuary apprentice.

Ward is charged with abusing three of the center's mentally handicapped residents.

In at least a dozen cases, aides allegedly attacked residents as retaliation for a hit, spit or curse. Certain mentally retarded residents are particularly combative.

Ward, for instance, is accused of dislocating a resident's middle finger after the resident made an obscene gesture.

"You're not going to flip me or anyone else off again," a worker quoted Ward as saying.

At Specialty Care of Claremore, aide Sandra Sue Berry punched a 90-year-old resident in the hip. "Nobody hits me without getting hit back," Berry said during the scuffle. She pleaded guilty in September to abuse.

A former aide at the Green Country Care Center of Tulsa is accused of slapping an 86-year-old Alzheimer's patient after being spit upon.

Doris Jean Ellis, 45, also is accused of sticking her diarrhea-covered gloved hand into the patient's open mouth.

"Oh, no, you didn't. Oh, no you didn't," Ellis said after she was spit upon, a witness said.

Some aides later confessed they knew they were wrong but couldn't help themselves or were tired or overworked.

One of the most troubled facilities was the state-run Northern Oklahoma Resource Center in Enid.

At least nine aides at that center have been charged with abuse since 1997. It cares for mentally retarded residents and is run by the state Department of Human Services.

One severely retarded resident was beaten with a weightlifter's belt after eating a caregiver's hamburger.

In other incidents, a 49-year-old female resident was beaten with a radio antenna and a 46-year-old incapacitated man was beaten with a clothes hanger.

In one case, witness David John Foskuhl, a temporary employee, said he did not immediately report the abuse because he feared reprisals.

"Foskuhl had heard that staff that wrote incident reports... had their cars 'keyed,' tires slashed, windows broken and even had surprise visits to their home," an investigator wrote.

The agency reports it has taken a series of steps to reduce mistreatment of clients at its facilities in Enid and Pauls Valley.

The steps include a new drug testing policy, wage increases to attract better qualified applicants and more surprise checks on workers after-hours and on weekends.

Employees are more aware of their responsibilities to protect clients and report suspected abuse or neglect, the agency said.

"The administrations at both facilities are diligent and consistent in the use of corrective discipline in mistreatment cases and in the termination of staff that have confirmed abuse or neglect allegations."

Reporting abuse

The statewide toll-free hot line number for reporting suspected adult and child abuse is (800) 522-3511.

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