Mira Mesa

Lawyers representing nine children housed at a Mira Mesa foster-care home filed suit Tuesday against the mother and son who operated the facility, as well as San Diego County, claiming they were beaten, abused and tortured.

The civil suit, filed in San Diego Superior Court, details 72 charges involving beatings and abuse that allegedly occurred in the foster home run by Henri Mathis Dyson and her son Harold Jo Dyson. Contending, in part, that the children were assaulted and their civil rights were violated, the suit asks for an unspecified amount of damages.

Henri Mathis Dyson, 42, had been licensed to provide foster care and day care services since June, 1982. But in January, 1989, questions were raised about the Dysons when a 17-month-old boy from the home, who was bruised and unconscious, had to be hospitalized. Doctors believe the boy slipped into a coma after being subjected to a five-quart cold-water enema. The Dysons were arrested two weeks later.

Some of the children, between the ages of 17 months and 12 years old, told police they feared for their lives when they were tied to a kitchen post and beaten and that they were forced to sleep on a cold garage floor and inside a bathtub.

The lawsuit represents the latest round in a legal battle involving the children, various county children’s service agencies and the Dysons.

The Dysons pleaded innocent to charges of felony child abuse last year in Superior Court.