Illinois: Memo: State knew of group home abuses Residents' families were not told of problems

By Carla K. Johnson AP Medical Writer CHICAGO (AP) -- Illinois officials knew developmentally disabled residents had been abused at a network of group homes in eastern Illinois two years before Paul McCann died following an alleged assault by staff members, according to government documents obtained by The Associated Press. But the residents' families, including McCann's, say they had no idea about the problems. If she had known, McCann's sister said, she could have done something to protect him. Conditions at the group homes run by the nonprofit Graywood Foundation were "totally unacceptable," according to a 2009 memo an Illinois investigator wrote to his bosses and the AP obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. The memo was written almost a year after murder charges were filed against two employees in the 2008 death of Dustin Higgins, another resident who lived in a Graywood group home. The homes were under intense state scrutiny, and the state eventually stopped them from admitting new residents. But residents' families weren't told about the problems then -- or even after state investigators substantiated 18 new allegations of staff abuse and neglect, according to an attorney representing McCann's family and a state lawmaker working to improve the system. Finally, after the 42-year-old McCann died in January, Illinois cut off the money -- nearly $5 million a year -- to Graywood and owner Augustine Oruwari of Charleston. The state moved the last six residents out of Graywood homes Saturday. The nonprofit is appealing the state's revocation of its license. "We could have done something if we had really known what was going on," said McCann's sister Kathleen Slovick, 52, of Glen Ellyn. "We should be able to get that information on group homes." While nursing home inspection reports are posted online in Illinois, there's no similar information on group homes, an alternative to institutional care likely to be used more widely in Illinois after a preliminary settlement was reached this year a class action lawsuit over the civil rights of adults with disabilities. Illinois now has 9,300 adults with developmental disabilities living in group homes, family homes and apartments run by more than 200 community agencies. The Illinois Department of Human Services, which oversees group homes for the developmentally disabled, declined an interview request because of the pending litigation involving Graywood. Oruwari, Graywood Foundation's owner, collected more than $600,000 in state money from Graywood for "management services" for the year ending June 30, 2009, according to an annual report Graywood filed with the state attorney general's office. Yet Oruwari told the AP on Friday that he wasn't personally involved in running the organization. McCann, who died Jan. 23, had the sweetness and mental capacity of a child, his sister said. He loved the Nat King Cole song "Unforgettable," Chinese buffets and the tree-lined ridges around Charleston. His ribs were broken in 13 places during the alleged assault, and he later died when his lungs filled with fluid. The Coles County coroner ruled his death a homicide, and two Graywood employees, Marquis Harmon, 22, of Danville, and Keyun Newble, 25, of East St. Louis, have been charged with first-degree murder. McCann's family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Graywood, claiming Newble and Harmon kicked and punched McCann for 45 minutes after punishing him for stealing food. Slovick said on the weekend her brother died, she and her 79-year-old mother drove more than three hours from the Chicago area to Charleston after a doctor summoned them to spend McCann's last hours with him in the hospital. Slovick photographed the bruises on her brother's legs, chest and back before he died. Then she and her mother met with a Charleston police detective who told them what he'd learned from other Graywood residents: Staff members punished residents by piling books on their outstretched arms until they dropped the volumes. Harmon's attorney, Ed Piraino, said his client received no training in working with developmentally disabled adults and that may have been an issue in the case. "I'm not excusing what happened," Piraino said. "But when you take a young man off the streets and put an ID card on him (without training), bad things happen." William Diggins, an investigations bureau chief in the Illinois Department of Human Services Office of Inspector General, warned his superiors that Graywood was obstructing investigations and failing to follow recommendations in his 2009 memo. The company's rate of substantiated allegations was double the average for all the office's investigations, and it had a "culture of no accountability," Diggins wrote. The memo shows state officials knew about Graywood's problems nearly two years before McCann's death, said Mike Kaminsky, director the Illinois Lifespan Project, which advocates for the developmentally disabled. "It wasn't a secret," Kaminsky said. "The staff probably figured they could do whatever they wanted while they were there. That's a sick culture to live in and to work in." Published: Tue, Mar 29, 2011