Burns was not examined by a doctor until the following day, when he was taken, at Paquette’s insistence, to Noble Hospital in Westfield. Paquette said she was told by the medical staff there that Burns’ black eyes “were consistent with somebody taking their fingers and shoving them right into his eyes with sufficient force to cause blood to pool.”
In an article in the Advocacy Network’s Fall 2010 newsletter, Paquette wrote that she took the unusual step some three weeks after the alleged assault of personally filing a felony charge against Saunders of Assault and Battery on a Disabled Person. “Until I filed the charge myself, the situation wasn’t taken seriously by the law enforcement authorities,” Paquette contends.
Paquette isn’t alone in questioning our society’s commitment to ensuring justice or safety for persons with intellectual disabilities. The New York Times reported Sunday that an inquiry by the paper found that New York State’s group home system of care “operates with scant oversight and few consequences for employees who abuse the vulnerable population.”
An investigation by The Cincinnati Enquirer described “a statewide law enforcement system (in Ohio) that routinely fails to investigate and punish those who abuse and neglect mentally retarded citizens.” There’s not much reason to assume the situation is any different in Massachusetts.
Paquette said the alleged assault of her brother was witnessed by his roommate, who said the incident was entirely unprovoked. Later in the day, Burns and his roommate were driven back to West Springfield by another staff member of the group home. Paquette said her brother had to sit in the back seat with Saunders, the alleged perpetrator, the whole way.
Paquette wrote that she was later told informally by an investigator that her brother spent the night in his group home moaning and crying. But it wasn’t until he was sent the following day to his regular day program that someone from the program called Paquette’s other brother, Jim, who shares guardianship with her. The caller said John Burns had two black eyes and was being sent back to his residence.
That was the first Paquette had heard about the injury to her brother. She said she gathered her camera and a notebook and went to the group home to find her brother indeed with two big black eyes. It was then that she began to experience the first of many frustrations with the state’s system for responding to reports of abuse of the intellectually disabled.
After examining her brother, she asked the house manager to report the injury to the police and the Disabled Persons Protection Commission. But when a police officer arrived at the house, he said he couldn’t investigate the incident because it had occurred in another town, outside his jurisdiction.
The DPPC was called immediately to investigate. But the chronically under-funded agency handed the investigation over to the Department of Developmental Services (which funds the contractor running the group home).
Fortunately, Paquette said, the management of the group home did take the situation seriously. Both the house manager and his supervisor questioned Burns’ roommate on separate occasions about what he saw, and were convinced his description of the event was consistent and credible. Burns’ roommate is intellectually disabled, but is able to communicate. CHD fired Saunders immediately, based on the assault allegation.
Nevertheless, the system has been slow and inefficient in tracking Saunders down. Saunders failed to show up in Falmouth District Court for a pre-trial hearing that had been scheduled in October. He is currently free on bail and is currently scheduled to appear in court on March 28.
In the meantime, Paquette has gotten little information about the case, she says, from the investigating authorities. The DPPC, for instance, will not release the report done on the incident by DDS even to her because the matter is under criminal investigation.
“I’ve gotten nothing in writing from DPPC and nothing from CHD,” Paquette says. ”The DPPC says they can’t release anything to me because it’s in criminal court, but it’s in court only because I happened to file the charges.
“What did the DDS find out about this case?” Paquette adds. “What did CHD write up? If everyone in those agencies has seen those reports, why not the victim, or at least why not me, who is the victim’s voice? It’s almost surreal. It’s just like fog. I’m trying to stay calm, but I find myself getting more and more irritated.”
At COFAR, we’ve also been frustrated in trying to get media coverage of this case. Although we notified the media around the state prior to a pre-trial hearing for Saunders that was scheduled for March 3, no one showed up to cover the hearing, and nothing appeared in any media publication about it.
Paquette said her goal isn’t ”to put someone in jail for 30 days, it’s to have a jury hear this case, to let people know about this problem (of abuse of the intellectually disabled), and to make sure agencies check on their employees and make sure they can fire them if they are causing these types of problems.”
We all know that the media is facing its own financial issues and is cutting back on its coverage of issues in all facets of society. Yet, in New York and Ohio, newspapers have recognized the importance of the problem of abuse of the disabled.
After we sent follow-up emails to some local newspapers in the Cape Cod (location of the pre-trial hearing) and Springfield areas (location of Burns’ group home), we heard back from the editors of The Cape Cod Times and The Daily Hampshire Gazette. We were told by the Cape Cod paper’s editor that their news editor is “considering” a story about the incident that would run around the time of the next court date. The editor of The Gazette said somewhat apologetically that West Springfield is outside of that paper’s circulation area, but otherwise, “we would have covered this type of story.”
The Springfield Republican initially assigned a reporter to the story, but nothing has appeared in the paper, and neither the reporter nor the executive editor have responded to our follow-up emails about the matter. 
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Paquette noted, by the way, that 15 years ago, her brother was badly injured by a house manager in a different residence in Westfield. At that time, The Boston Globe sent a reporter all the way out to Westfield to interview her, and Geraldo Rivera sent a television reporter as well. Times have apparently changed.
Among the issues Paquette would like to find out is why the firm running the day program, in particular, didn’t bring her brother to the hospital immediately, but rather just sent him home after observing his black eyes.
She also wants to know whether a State Police unit attached to the DPPC is conducting its own investigation of the case, separate from the Falmouth District Attorney’s Office. It was only after she filed the charge that the DPPC sent a Massachusetts State Trooper to her home to interview her, Paquette says.
Paquette believes her decision to personally file the charge took many people by surprise. “I don’t think it occurred to anyone I would go and file charges myself,” she says. “I believe everyone was waiting around for DPPC and DDS to go do whatever they do.” She said she was told by a DDS investigator that had she left the matter entirely in that agency’s hands, “this more than likely would have taken two years for this to get to the criminal court. I short circuited the process, she says.”
ssurette says
Based on the lack of comments, it would appear there isn’t a whole lot of interest in this venue either. It truly is a sad state of affairs when even a liberal forum like BMG has NOTHING to say when the most vulnerable and helpless among us are the victims of abuse and no one is held accountable.
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christopher says
OK, it sounds like a bad situation, but you’ve complained about lack of comments before which isn’t constructive. You appear to be the opposite in that it seems like we ONLY see you on posts like this. To be honest, this is much longer and detailed than I expect from this platform. I end up scrolling through at skimming speed.
ssurette says
for the comment even if only to criticize my comment and the topics that interest me.
dave-from-hvad says
I don’t think the lack of comments necessarily means people here at BMG aren’t interested in this case or this issue. There are a lot of posts and issues to comment on and people only have so much time. We certainly appreciate BMG as an effective forum in which to help get our message out. I do see disinterest in the MSM in this issue.
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p>Christopher, I’m surprised that you would criticize the post as too detailed for this “platform.” This is a complex story with many facets and implications. The fact that you chose to skim through it is fine. That’s the beauty of the blogosphere. Users have a choice on how they read posts. Had I just posted a few salient facts about this case, readers wouldn’t have that choice and would get a much more limited view of it.
christopher says
I did not intend to come across as critical as upon rereading I acknowledge I sounded of people’s various, and sometimes very focused, interests. My comment about length was intended as an explanation for my lack of participation on this thread than a criticism. I also tend not to comment on something I don’t think I know much about.
amberpaw says
I still get tears in my eyes when I remember some of the abuse my son, especially, suffered in a public junior high in a town that prides itself on its schools.
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p>Once another student found the unsupervised time to use clear tape, and tape about 100 pins, point up, on our son’s seat, knowing he would sit without noticing them. That is one of many times other students put our son in the emergency room from that school.
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p>The administrations’ response – “Sorry, we can’t figure out who did it.” No effort was made.
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p>Ultimately, we had a hearing after another assault sent our 12-yer old child to a hospital emergency room – and the hearing officer found the Town at fault for not following our son’s ed plan – and the TEAM decided that this town was not capable of keeping our son safe. Abysmal.
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p>If I had it to do over, no child of mine would have attended school in that town after elementary school, and maybe, not at all though there were some fine, caring elementary school teachers.
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p>It seems to me that the measure of a society, and of a person, is the compassion and protection extended towards those who are vulnerable. Isn’t that what being honorable is all about?
christopher says
…how do you suggest they go about finding out? I substitute teach and from time to time something happens with no adult witness and the kids all clam up. If nobody talks I’m not sure what to do without invoking tactics I wouldn’t approve of.
dave-from-hvad says
and bullying, whether they occur in group homes or classrooms. I think what AmberPaw is talking about here (and Sheila Paquette in the post above) is the frustration they feel when those entrusted to protect us and our loved ones appear to show little or no interest in doing so.
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p>Sure, witnesses are hard to find and they tend to clam up. But if we adopt the assumption that therefore there’s nothing that can be done in these cases, we might as well resign ourselves to a society of perpetual anarchy and chaos.
peter-porcupine says
On Cape, the DA’s office is county-wide, so there is no ‘Falmouth’ DA. The office to contact is the Cape & Islands District Attorney Michael J. O’Keefe. Since she filed the original charges, she should contact them and ask the name of the ADA assigned to the case, and ask that she be notified as her brother’s representative of developments in the case.
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p>The Victim/Witness Assistance Office should be able to get a copy of the police report, and notify if the State Police are also involved, for example.
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p>I would seriously consider leaving the state-level bureaucrats to their dithering and concentrate on the DA and on the Police Department where charges were filed (I assume Upper Cape somewhere if this is being heard in Falmouth instead of Barnstable).
dave-from-hvad says
a victim advocate out of the DA’s Office on the Cape. We’ve just obtained the police report in the case.
peter-porcupine says
peter-porcupine says
Story on this is front page of today’s Cape Cod Times, below the fold. Featured placement.