Worker at Home for Retarded Charged in Molestations : Crime: Mission Viejo man faces 15 counts of sexual battery against women patients. He says they consented.

A 61-year-old employee of a home for mentally retarded women faces 15 counts of sexual battery involving five patients who suffer from conditions that range from Down’s syndrome to cerebral palsy, prosecutors allege.

Douglas Roger Dunn of Mission Viejo has pleaded not guilty to the nine felony and six misdemeanor charges and will appear at a pretrial hearing in South Orange County Municipal Court today. His attorney, Richard Sullivan, said Thursday that the five women--some of whom only possess the mental capacity of a 10- to 12-year-old--willingly consented to having intimate relations with his client.

Prosecutors, however, allege that Dunn “unlawfully restrained” his victims when he sexually molested them.

The alleged molestations occurred between December, 1989, and November, 1990, when Dunn worked as a medical appointment driver for the Good Shepherd Lutheran Home of the West in Laguna Niguel, which operates 17 such group homes in South County.

Officials of the home did not return calls to The Times Thursday. However, court documents indicate that Dunn was fired following an internal investigation last November.

Officials of the home told sheriff’s investigators that Dunn was hired to drive the women, individually, to their doctor’s appointments. The victims, whose ages range from 21 to 48, told investigators that Dunn would fondle them in a parking lot or some other “semi-secluded” spot, according to court records. One victim, who was identified only by her first name, alleged that Dunn sexually molested her when he filled in for another staff member who had not showed up for work.

Court documents quoted Good Shepherd officials as saying that the incidents had traumatized the women. Officials of the home became suspicious after noticing that the women acted scared when they knew that Dunn was to take them to their doctor appointments.

One victim who suffers from cerebral palsy and a speech impediment scrawled a personal memorandum of her alleged molestation. Another drew stick figures to show the scene where the alleged incident involving her occurred.

When investigators visited Dunn at his home in Mission Viejo, he immediately blurted out, “I didn’t have intercourse with any of them!” according to prosecutors.

In a statement given to sheriff’s investigators last November, Dunn acknowledged that he “hugged and kissed” some of the patients, adding that “things got out of hand with a couple.”

In describing his relationship with a 47-year-old patient, Dunn told investigators that he didn’t think there was anything wrong because the woman was “fluent” and “good with language,” court records show.

He described another as “loud” and thought that “he might get caught with her.”

Dunn said he “looked it up in the books to see if it was allowed . . . but said he could not find anything,” prosecutors allege.

Dunn was released on his own recognizance after his arraignment last month.

He declined to comment on the charges Thursday. However, Sullivan said he was surprised that the charges had been filed.