Abuse Reports Close Home for Disabled

Handicapped residents of the Thompson Facility in Oxnard were slapped, verbally abused and denied meals as a disciplinary measure, according to state investigators’ findings.

The California Department of Social Services uncovered dozens of complaints last year against Elizabeth Thompson, who ran the facility on West Douglas Avenue. Last week, the department issued a final order barring Thompson, 60, from operating the home for developmentally disabled adults and a second one nearby for mentally ill adults.

“There was a lot of terrible verbal abuse, real nasty stuff,” said Mark Reese, a Social Services Department attorney in Sacramento.

The state first moved to revoke Thompson’s licenses in April, 1989, after Ventura County Mental Health Services officials reported mistreatment.

Following the accusations, the Tri-County Regional Center transferred six clients it had placed in the Thompson Facility to other houses. Residents were relocated from both houses by last December while Thompson appealed the revocations, said Ronald A. Laux, the department’s residential home licensing supervisor for Ventura County.

Thompson was not available for comment Wednesday. Her failure to answer a list of accusations sent to her in July resulted in the formal license revocations on Sept. 4, Reese said.

Among its charges, the department claimed Thompson hit at least four clients, confiscated one resident’s dentures and eyeglasses for six months as punishment, abused residents for not performing chores that were not their responsibility, left them unattended, told them she hated and despised them and called them fools, stupid and brainwashed.