Alleged Molestation Cancels Private Program for Retarded

An alleged sexual molestation incident has led to cancellation of a $1.7-million-per-year training program for 138 retarded clients in Orange County run by the operator of a chain of group homes that is on state probation because of charges of poor care and supervision.

The clients were removed Jan. 18 from a day program run by Edward T. Dawson’s Social Vocational Services Inc. after a client reported that a stranger had masturbated in his presence and fondled him in a restroom at a Garden Grove park.

Officials of the state Department of Social Services are investigating the incident to see if it will affect the status of Dawon’s licenses to operate nine group homes that are on probation in Southern California. Dawson also runs a company called Developmental Services Assn. that operates four group homes for the retarded in San Mateo County, which are on probation for alleged abuse, poor care or lack of supervision.

Officials of the Regional Center of Orange County--the private, nonprofit organization that contracts with the state to provide programs for the developmentally disabled--canceled its training-program agreement with Dawson after learning of the alleged molestation.

Garden Grove police say there is a suspect in the incident but indicate that--like many criminal cases in which the victims are retarded--the matter is difficult to pursue.

“He (the victim) made very confusing and contradictory statements,” Lt. Chuck Gibbs said.

Elaine Bamberg, executive director of the Orange County regional center, cut off Dawson’s day program contracts in a sharply worded letter referring to the alleged molestation and to previous charges of poor supervision and training methods.

“This action,” she wrote, “is based upon the program’s prior history of problems and failure to remedy them and because of an incident that was reported on the afternoon of Jan. 18, 1989, involving an alleged assault of a Social Vocational client who was inadequately supervised by their staff. For these reasons, the center can no longer assure the health, safety and welfare of any client attending a Social Vocational Services day program in Orange County.”

Dawson’s Orange County day programs came under criticism last April in a report by a consultant to the Orange County regional center who maintained that some of the clients were spending the majority of their time in vans or in parks rather than being trained to work or to control their behavior.

Dawson complained in a written statement that it was his staff that reported the alleged molestation to the regional center and that the client who was allegedly victimized was capable of going to the restroom unattended. He said the training group was in the park for a lunch break.

“After the client had been in the bathroom for two to three minutes,” Dawson wrote, “a community member who knew the group came out of the bathroom and approached the nearby (Developmental Vocational Services) supervisor. He suggested that the supervisor intervene because a man inside was acting strangely.”

Dawson also implied that Bamberg was trying to solve her own budgetary problems by canceling his day program.

In a letter to a Times reporter, Dawson said that the “wholesale termination of services for the (138) individuals, of even a short duration, would alleviate Elaine Bamberg’s budget problems and protect her reportedly healthy salary.”

Don Sizemore, information director for the Orange County regional center, dismissed Dawson’s suggestion of a hidden motive of using funds meant for client services to pay administrative salaries, pointing out that such a maneuver is prohibited by state law.

Sizemore said the funds saved in canceling Dawson’s day program would soon go to operators of other programs. He said that 30 to 40 of the clients have been placed in other programs and that placing the others is “absolutely the No. 1 priority for us.”

As for Dawson’s reference to Bamberg’s “healthy salary,” Sizemore said she makes $74,000 a year as head of the center, which is responsible for services for 6,000 clients.

Dawson pays himself $110,000 a year and his wife $60,000 for the operation of their 16 group homes that house about six clients each and their training programs for about 600 clients.

Dawson’s Social Vocational Services had received about $1,000 a month each for the majority of the clients in the Orange County day program.

After losing the Orange County program, Dawson said he still has 450 clients in day programs elsewhere in the state.

His training programs have no workshop centers, such as those used in more traditional approaches, but instead rely heavily on transporting clients by van to community locations for such activities as distributing leaflets advertising the program’s yardwork service.

Some of the so-called higher-functioning clients are provided busing jobs in fast-food restaurants or cleanup work in car dealerships under the supervision of Dawson staff members.