O.C. caretaker charged with abusing 2 men

A 22-year-old caretaker of mentally disabled adults has been charged with abusing two men in his custody after a cellphone with videos that appear to show him repeatedly smacking the men was turned over to police, officials said Thursday.

Patrick John Solis of South Gate, a former employee at Jossen Vocational Academy in Anaheim, pleaded not guilty last week to two misdemeanor counts of inflicting injury on an elderly dependent adult and one felony count of false imprisonment, a charge that carries up to four years in prison, said Anaheim Police Det. Cherie Hill, who led the investigation.

Solis, who was released from the Anaheim city jail last week on $25,000 bail, could not be reached for comment.

Authorities are also searching for former Jossen employee Michael Douglas Rama, 24, whom they describe as a person of interest. Rama owned the cellphone used to videotape the alleged attacks, which took place in a restroom at the facility. Solis and Rama, authorities said, were assigned to look after the men.

Officials at the Jossen Vocational Academy, a privately run center where disabled adults are trained in skills including money management and personal hygiene, could not be reached for comment. The academy reports to the nonprofit Regional Center of Orange County, which oversees about 80 centers that serve 3,600 disabled adults.

“We were shocked and surprised” at the videos, said Janis White, chief operating officer of the Regional Center, which is managed by the state Department of Developmental Services.

“We don’t want to see anything like this happen ever again,” she said. “The people we serve are so vulnerable. We want to ... protect them.”

One video, shot last March 22, shows a 38-year-old man wearing a navy blue collared shirt being slapped twice. A man who is not visible on the video is heard laughing. When the disabled man groans and pulls away, someone off-camera begins to clap.

The other video, shot last April 12, shows another 38-year-old man wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and leaning against a toilet. In the 30-second video, someone slaps the man three times as he lets out high-pitched wails and at one point puts up both hands.

The man, who has the mental abilities of a 2-year-old, is not fully toilet-trained and has a “sweet, happy” demeanor, investigators said.

Rama later sold the cellphone on which the videos were found to a co-worker at the center. In September, the co-worker found the videos and gave the phone to Jossen officials, who contacted police.

White, who said she could not discuss the incidents specifically, said Regional Center staffers routinely make unannounced visits to the county’s adult day care centers and train their employees to spot abuse. The center has contracted with Jossen since 2002, and White said she could not recall any abuse reports similar to recent incidents.

*

ashley.powers@latimes.com

Times staff writer Roy Rivenburg contributed to this report.