State Acts Against 5 Community Care Homes

The state Social Services Department in recent months has taken disciplinary action against five operators of community-care facilities in the San Fernando Valley as part of a crackdown on health and safety violations.

The department has alleged that a man licensed to run a Sun Valley day-care center for infants and youngsters sexually abused a child for 15 years--starting when the child was 4 months old. And the man’s wife, who helped run the center, allegedly allowed her ex-husband to molest their children during her previous marriage.

In a Granada Hills home for mentally retarded adults, the 21-year-old grandson of the owner reportedly had sexual relations with a disabled woman. Viola Estrada, who ran the home, said the 24-year-old woman became pregnant and had an abortion.

At another adult home in Tujunga, a staff member allegedly pulled a gun and threatened to shoot a resident, and on another occasion a resident was stabbed. The home was said to lack food and toilet paper, and to be infested with cockroaches.

The state Social Services Department has revoked the license of the Tujunga home, placed the Granada Hills facility on three years’ probation and suspended the license of the Sun Valley home, which it wants shut permanently.

The other two facilities involved in the crackdown are a Valencia foster home and a Sunland residential program for autistic children.

“The department will continue its stepped-up licensing activity, if necessary, to protect community care clients--those who cannot necessarily protect and care for themselves,” Social Services Director Linda S. McMahon said.

The department revoked the licenses of 17 community-care providers statewide in January and began proceedings to lift 38 more licenses for allegations ranging from sexual abuse to continuing facilities inadequacies and exceeding capacity. Operators are entitled to a hearing before an administrative law judge before they lose their licenses.

The Social Services Department licenses more than 70,000 facilities throughout California, including family day-care homes, child-care centers, adult residential facilities, homes for the elderly, group homes for the mentally or physically handicapped and foster family and adoption agencies.

Harris Family Day Care in Sun Valley had its license suspended Dec. 30 after authorities determined that there was an immediate danger to children there. In its complaint, Social Services contends that one of the license-holders, Robert Mulligan, sexually molested a child between 1971 and 1987, beginning when the child was 4 months old.

The complaint does not name the child, indicate whether it was a boy or girl or disclose its relationship to Mulligan, who also is known as Robert Kramer. Although Social Services Department spokeswoman Kathleen A. Norris said the child was not molested at the day-care center, privacy laws prevent the department from revealing more.

‘Gross Inability’

The complaint also charges that the other licensee, Julie Harris, failed to discover or prevent her ex-husband’s molestation of her four children during their marriage. Harris “has admitted these facts,” the document said.

This admission “discloses a present gross inability to properly supervise children who may be placed under her care and supervision,” the complaint said.

Harris and Mulligan are married, Norris said.

Harris was also charged with refusing to answer investigators’ questions about the molestations, taking more children into the facility than her license permitted and failing to fence or barricade stairs to the house’s second story to prevent injury to infants.

The home was given a 3-year license in October to provide care for a maximum of six children up to 12 years old.

Mulligan and Harris have appealed the revocation and a hearing before an administrative law judge in Los Angeles is scheduled March 25, Norris said. Neither Mulligan nor Harris could be reached for comment.

Social Services routinely informs local police of cases where crimes may have been committed. “There is police involvement with the Glendale police,” Norris said, but she would not elaborate. Glendale police said late last week that they were unable to provide any information on the matter.

Viola Estrada, owner of the Estrada Family Home in Granada Hills, said she was unaware that her grandson, Rohan Marsh, had sexual relations with a 24-year-old slightly retarded resident. Marsh was visiting from out of town.

“From what I gathered, she instigated it,” Estrada said of the woman. “When I found out about it, she told her mother and me. . . . But he still denied it.”

Estrada said she became convinced that the incident occurred after the woman became pregnant and had an abortion.

Investigators never resolved whether the woman voluntarily entered into the relationship. Norris said

Estrada, 68, said she had run a home for retarded adults for 28 years without incident. Two women had been with her for 18 years, and two others for six, she said.

Estrada and the department last month reached agreement on the 3-year probation, and Estrada said she intends to reopen the home. The facility has been closed nearly a year. Estrada’s application for a new license was denied after a change of address last May.

Her grandson “won’t be able to come back to my home any more as long as we have people here,” Estrada vowed.

In contrast, the Autonomy Center for Independent Living and Learning, a Tujunga facility licensed for a maximum of 23 mentally or physically disabled adults, appears to be closed for good. Owner John A. Muller did not appeal the state’s revocation action, which took effect Jan. 28. He could not be reached for comment.

The detailed state complaint against the center paints a portrait of an ill-equipped and poorly maintained facility where residents lacked proper supervision.

The complaint asserts that Muller’s lack of care and supervision led to a resident being stabbed by another during a fight April 30, 1986. No staff member was present at the time.

Allegations of Abuse

In March, 1986, the report alleges, staff member James Stites “verbally abused and pushed” a resident and “then pulled a gun and threatened to shoot him.”

The complaint also charges that Muller was not present during an 11-day period in October when the facility lacked food for residents and money to purchase necessities, including toilet paper and soap.

“Through his reckless abandonment of clients in care,” the Social Services Department said, Muller “exposed clients to dangerous and unconscionable conditions.”