As reported by Clark Kauffman; DesMoinesRegister Nov. 12, 2011
Editor's note
This story originally published in the Sunday, February 20, 2011 Register.
Long before he was placed in an Iowa care facility alongside vulnerable, disabled adults, Michael Ogden was a sex offender.
In 2004, at age 14, he was charged with sexual abuse of a boy. The charge was later reduced to assault with intent to commit sexual abuse, and Ogden was placed on the state's registry of sex offenders.
Six years later, in the summer of 2010, a doctor recommended that Ogden be placed in the Pride Group care facility in Le Mars - a state-licensed home for people who cannot care for themselves.
The home was told of Ogden's past a month before he moved in, according to state records. Even so, the state later alleged the home did not take any special precautions.
Ogden was placed in a dormitory-style room with five other residents. Within weeks, he sexually assaulted three of his fellow residents, according to police and state regulators.
Iowa now has 27 sex offenders living in 15 residential care facilities for the disabled. They are part of a growing trend that has resulted in younger and more dangerous people moving into the most loosely regulated care facilities in Iowa.
In some cases, the offenders offend again - as happened with Ogden, and in Mediapolis, where a sex offender who lived in a care facility was found having sex with a mentally retarded resident in 2008.
In other situations, disabled residents may be at risk living among identified sex offenders, but no problems have been reported. In Vinton, the Cedar Valley Ranch is home to six sex offenders, but the home's administrator says there has not been any trouble.
Under Iowa law, sex offenders cannot live within 2,000 feet of a school and they can't work, even part-time, in a care facility for dependent adults. But they can live in those facilities, sharing rooms with vulnerable Iowans who have mental or physical limitations.
Among the general population, two out of three sexual assaults go unreported. People with mental disabilities are even less likely to complain, advocates believe. Ogden's victims, for example, said he intimidated them and persuaded them to remain silent.
The Government Accountability Office determined four years ago that there were at least 700 registered sex offenders living in the nation's long-term care facilities for the elderly and disabled. States such as Illinois and Minnesota have enacted laws requiring government agencies to notify the owners of long-term care facilities when sex offenders are directed there by the courts. Ohio legislators last year considered a bill requiring facility owners to notify residents and their relatives of sex offenders in their building.
In Iowa, there are no such notification requirements.
The state estimates that 28 percent of the people in Iowa's residential care facilities are there because of a court order or civil commitment. Care facility administrators and advocates for the disabled worry that some of these homes for the disabled are morphing into lightly staffed extensions of the corrections system.
Shelly Chandler of the Iowa Association of Community Providers says the care facilities are in a no-win situation: Judges send people into facilities where their need for housing, meals, housing and assistance with daily living can be met; social-service agencies provide inadequate funding for the residents' care; and regulators impose fines or other penalties when the inevitable problems arise.
The majority of residents have no history of violent crime, Chandler said, but their disabilities make them vulnerable to those who do.
"They may be young, predatory and have a history of drug abuse and sexual offenses," Chandler said. "These facilities aren't designed for them. A sexual offender belongs in a small, highly structured, heavily staffed, heavily supervised setting."
Advocates have complained that doctors, social workers and judges who are steering people into the care facilities are unaware the homes provide only a minimal level of care and oversight. And before people can be committed to a care facility by the court, there must be a finding that they are dangerous to themselves or others. A mere finding of mental illness isn't sufficient.
"So that's a problem," said Dan Flaherty of the Polk County attorney's office. "You now have an individual who is 'dangerous' in among people who are, maybe, elderly dementia patients. You've got some person who's likely to physically injure somebody else or themselves in there with somebody who can't even care for themselves."
In the past three years, the number of civil commitments has increased 19 percent.
During that time, at least 46 residential care facilities for disabled Iowans have closed. A 2010 study says one of the reasons has been an influx of difficult clients without a corresponding increase in funding to pay for added supervision, causing conditions in some homes to "get out of hand."
Meanwhile, state legislators have removed a basic level of oversight designed to protect the 4,600 Iowans in 188 residential care facilities. Since last July, there has been a one-year moratorium on the routine inspection of these facilities. As a result, some residential care facilities have not seen a state inspector for three years, which means no one from the state is checking on staff training or residents with violent behavior.
Mike Porter, administrator of the Le Mars home where Ogden sexually assaulted three residents, said he is routinely contacted by parole officers looking to place newly discharged prisoners into his care facility. He also has had judges order individuals into the facility, even in cases where Porter believed the placement wasn't safe or appropriate.
"We've had to refuse them admission right at the door because they don't meet the standards," he said.
Ogden arrived at the Le Mars home after a referral from a doctor at a hospital where he had stayed.
Public records don't indicate why Ogden was deemed unable to live independently, but they do show that within six weeks of his admission to the Le Mars home, he was accused of punching a resident. A few weeks later, he was accused of repeatedly kissing and touching a nonconsenting resident. In October, the police were called to investigate a nurse's concern that Ogden was sexually abusing residents.
Ogden allegedly told police that two of his fellow residents had refused his sexual advances, but he had, at various times, laid on them, kissed them and licked them and had other forms of contact with them - all while instructing them to remain silent. Police also alleged Ogden had kissed, licked and groped a third unwilling resident.
State inspectors' reports allege that although the Pride Group facility takes in sex offenders and has had three suicides in the past five years, the staff can't recall ever being trained to deal with sex offenders or suicidal individuals.
Porter says he is appealing the state's findings and the $5,000 fine that was imposed as a result of the sex abuse. "I'd say our staff is very well trained," he said. "Naturally, we're going to tighten our ship and improve some things."
As for Ogden, prosecutors negotiated a plea deal and two of the three sexual abuse counts were dismissed. He was fined $625, placed on probation for two years and given 30 days in jail. He now lives with his father, Rodney Ogden of Newton, who is also a sex offender, having been convicted in 2003 of lascivious acts with a girl 13 or younger.
Professor Donna Cohen at the University of South Florida has studied the problem of violent offenders in care facilities and says 19 states in the past seven years have enacted policies or laws to deal with sex offenders and violent criminals in care facilities.
Illinois homes, for example, must notify other residents and their families if there are sex offenders living in the facility, and they typically must place offenders in private rooms that are within sight of the nurses' station.
Cohen says such laws haven't been in place long enough to evaluate their effectiveness.
"This is an issue across the country," Cohen said. "We have a growing population of offenders and they do have a right to long-term care."
Sex offenders in Iowa care facilities
There are 27 Iowa sex offenders living in 15 of Iowa's residential care facilities for the disabled. Here's where they now reside, according to the latest data from the Iowa Department of Public Safety and the Iowa judicial branch:
• Cedar Valley Ranch, Vinton: Timothy John Mask, convicted in 2001 of lascivious acts with a child. William Theodore Myers, convicted in 2007 of third-degree sexual abuse. Wesley Duane Youmans, convicted in 1993-94 of indecent exposure, admitting minors to a place where obscene material is exhibited, and five counts of lascivious acts with a child. Agnes Marie Timlin, convicted in 2005 of third-degree sexual abuse. Michael Hurst, convicted in 2010 of lascivious acts with a child. Susanne Joanne Mueller, convicted in 2006 of assault with intent to commit sexual abuse.
• Mediapolis Care Facility, Mediapolis: Dale William Burns, convicted in 1998 of second-offense domestic-abuse assault; convicted in 2000 of third-degree sexual abuse and of violating a no-contact order; convicted in 2006 of failing to register as a sex offender; convicted in 2010 of assault. James Keck Jr., charged in 2003 with third-degree sexual abuse and later convicted of assault with bodily injury.
• Stonehill Care Center, Dubuque: Dorrance Raphael Bakey, convicted in 2004 of indecent exposure.
• Kevington Lane, Sidney: Coady Wayne Tallman, convicted in 2010 of indecent contact with a child. Lynn Jesse Zaiger, convicted in 1993 of third-degree sexual abuse.
• Country View Estates, Guthrie Center: Michael Lee Bacon, convicted in 2002 of assault with intent to commit sexual abuse. Robert Daniel Books, convicted in 2007 of lascivious acts with a child.
• Insight Human Services, Mount Pleasant: David Wayne Connop, charged in 2002 with three counts of second-degree sexual abuse and three counts lascivious acts with a child, and later convicted of two counts of lascivious acts with a child.
• Knoxville Residential, Knoxville: Henry David Sanders, convicted in 2006 of indecent exposure, convicted in 2006 and 2007 of parole violations.
• The Pride Group, Primghar: Wesley John Nelson, charged in 2000 with indecent exposure, and convicted of disorderly conduct; convicted in 2001 of indecent exposure. Brandon James Laird, convicted in 2006 of assault with intent to commit sexual abuse; convicted in 2010 of a sex-offender verification violation.
• The Pride Group, Le Mars: Alex Charles McVicker, convicted in 1999 of second-degree sexual abuse; charged in 2002 with assault causing bodily injury, a charge later dismissed; convicted in 2002 and 2009 of assault. Philip Darel Briles, convicted in 1990 of sexual abuse and burglary.
• Diamond Life Health Care Center, Montezuma: James Dean Smith, convicted in 1994 of vehicular homicide; twice convicted in 2000 of domestic abuse assault; convicted in 2000 of intent to cause pain or injury; convicted in 2002 of attempting to entice away a child. Gary Lee Norem, convicted in 2005 of harassment; convicted in 2006 of assault with intent to commit sexual abuse. Ann C. Stephenson, convicted in 2006 of indecent contact with a child.
• Country Care Center, Harlan: Jason Ronald Ostrus, convicted in 2003 of assault with intent to commit sexual abuse.
• Keokuk Area Group Home: Christopher Adam Barnes, convicted in 2009 of assault; convicted in 2010 of assault with intent to commit sexual abuse and probation violation.
• Thompson Transitional Living Center, Waterloo: Joseph Christopher Lockard, convicted in 1998 of third-degree sexual abuse; convicted in 1994, 1995, 1998, 1999 and 2005 of probation violations; convicted in 1999 of burglary; convicted in 2005 and 2006 of failure to register as a sex offender; convicted in 2005 of theft; convicted in 1995 of contempt of court; convicted in 1999 and 2000 of escape.
• Abbe Center for Community Care, Marion: Johnny William Hicks, convicted in 1993 of sexual abuse; convicted in 2006 of failure to register as a sex offender; convicted in 2001 and 2004 of theft.
• Ashford Estate Home, Fort Dodge: Frederick Rector, convicted in 2004 of assault with intent to commit sexual abuse.
# http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20111113/NEWS/111112009/-1/gallery_array/Sex-offenders-put-Iowa-s-disabled-residents-risk
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