Angry Residents Question Supervision at Group Home

In a sometimes heated community meeting, more than 200 Calabasas-area residents Tuesday night demanded answers from public officials about supervision at a halfway house where a 12-year-old boy was living when he was allegedly murdered by two older boys last week.

Most residents said they were concerned about the apparent lack of supervision at the home, which allowed the three boys to sneak away.

Andrew Juels, founder of the six-bed Passageway group home, said a supervisor is on duty at all times, but such supervision can’t always prevent a crime.

“Murders happen every day,” he said, drawing catcalls and boos. “I can’t guarantee anyone’s safety. I can’t guarantee my safety getting out of here tonight.

“I brought the kid here. It weighs heavy on me. I’ll live with it for the rest of my life.”

The meeting, hosted by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Lost Hills station, was held at Grape Arbor Park with officials representing the California Department of Social Services’ board and care licensing division, the Los Angeles County Probation Department and county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.

Joan Buehring, president of the Saratoga Hills Homeowners Assn. in Calabasas, asked officials to close down the group home while community leaders worked out ways to incorporate the “isolated” facility into the community.

“They’re 100 feet away from an elementary school,” one man shouted, to the cheers of his neighbors. “What about our rights?”

“Is it going to be shut down?” one protester yelled. “A little boy was murdered here.”

“I have mixed emotions,” said Julie Sherman, who lives up the street from the home. “I’m happy to see the community together, but it doesn’t look like they want to find any solution to the problem. They want to get rid of them.”

Blankstein is a Times staff writer and Vitucci is a correspondent.