New Plan to Move Patients to Pomona Center Criticized

State officials have backed down from a plan to transfer 75 mentally retarded patients accused of crimes to a Pomona treatment center, following months of protests and legal action by residents and local legislators.

But many residents are still outraged about the ongoing expansion of the Lanterman Developmental Center, particularly a new plan to bring 128 clients with behavioral problems to the facility.

“We don’t have a definition of what type of person the state is bringing in?” said Sue Sisk, a Diamond Bar resident who has been fighting the Lanterman expansion for months.

In March, Sisk and other residents learned that the state was quietly moving forward with a plan that would bring potentially dangerous patients to a facility that abuts a Diamond Bar neighborhood and Little League field.

At the outset, Sisk complained that the state Department of Developmental Services avoided telling residents what types of crimes the so-called forensic patients had committed. Now, she says, the agency refuses to specify the types of behavioral problems the new would-be patients have shown.

State officials say the “behaviorally challenged” patients have committed no crimes, but cannot control their tempers and can be self-abusive or suicidal. As an example, they might throw a chair at a wall or hit their roommate when they get mad, officials said.

“They need a structured environment,” said Paul Carleton, deputy director for the department. “They are not a danger to the folks in the community.”

Carleton said the agency decided not to transfer the forensic clients to Lanterman because it thrust the usually quiet treatment center into such boiling controversy. He said he did not want the staff and current clients, who are severely retarded and not accused of crimes, to lose a long, friendly relationship with the outside community.

The lawsuit and pressure from legislators also were factors in the agency’s decision, he said.

The forensic patients that were slated to go to Lanterman will be transferred to the Porterville Developmental Center, in a rural part of the San Joaquin Valley.

But local officials do not plan to drop the lawsuit, filed against the state by the cities of Diamond Bar, Walnut and Pomona, the county of Los Angeles and some homeowners who live next to Lanterman. They say the state must rescind the environmental review of the original expansion plan. If not, they worry that the state could transfer the forensic clients to Lanterman when the current furor has subsided, officials said.

“They could just come right back with a little public notice and go forward with the project,” said Diamond Bar City Manager Terry Belanger.

Meanwhile, the controversy with both groups of patients has put the spotlight on a small, isolated population of mentally retarded people who have long been treated in developmental centers without the knowledge of surrounding communities.

Many act like children--vulnerable, impassioned and high-strung. Often, they cannot control their impulses, and some turn violent, experts say. Many in the forensic group have molested children, with whom they relate mentally, and others have been duped into doing crimes for others. Some have killed people.

Because they have limited mental capacity, they are deemed incompetent to stand trial and are sent to the developmental centers for three years.