WASHINGTON - Today, Rep. Tom Reed (NY-23) announced he has requested the Department of Justice to investigate the New York State Justice Center for failure to investigate crimes involving death and abuse of people with disabilities under New York State care.
“We were made aware of these egregious and unreported crimes against people with disabilities through a conversation with Michael Carey – whose son with autism was smothered to death by a state employee,” Tom said. “We care about these people who are being mistreated and abused and will fight to ensure those responsible are held accountable for their actions.
“For Governor Cuomo’s Justice Center to sweep these crimes under the rug is unfair for the people our government is charged with protecting,” Tom concluded.
Nearly 1,400 allegations related to staff abuses, patient neglect, sexual assaults and even patient deaths have been reported to the New York State Justice Center, which is authorized to investigate all reports of abuse and neglect and prosecute criminal offenses through its Special Prosecutor/Inspector General and local district attorneys.
However, the Justice Center investigated less than 2.5 percent of these cases and continues to operate without any added oversight or scrutiny.
Since its inception in 2013, the Center has failed to take meaningful steps to address systematic failures making it critical for the Department of Justice investigate.
Tom was joined by Reps. Lee Zeldin (R, NY-1), Peter King (R, NY-2), Elise Stefanik (R, NY-21) in requesting this investigation in a letter to the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.
President of the Jonathan Carey Foundation Michael Carey said, “New York State cannot continue to treat people with disabilities unequally and deny them equal access to immediate 911 medical and police services and justice. This discrimination in civil rights must end. The Justice Center has been receiving massive numbers of calls to its abuse hotline, close to 8,000 a month and almost all reported sexual assault crimes and negligent deaths are kept from local police, criminal investigations and from county elected district attorneys. This is a gross obstruction of justice.
“Overwhelming evidence reveals that only a tiny percentage of these heinous crimes are ever prosecuted according to state records. Federal investigations and swift intervention by the US Department of Justice is critical to stop the cover-ups and to finally ensure that our most vulnerable are not being denied due process. People with disabilities have the same 14th Amendment right to ‘equal protection of laws,’ when they are victims of crimes, as anyone else.”
A signed PDF of the letter is available here.
Full text of the letter is as follows:
U.S. Department of Justice
Civil Rights Division
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Office of the Assistant Attorney General, Main
Washington, D.C. 20530
We write today regarding the New York State Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs’ (the Center’s) inability to ensure the protection of individuals with special needs. Many allegations relating to staff abuses, patient neglect, sexual assaults and even patient deaths have been reported, yet the Center consistently fails to act in an appropriate manner and continues to operate without any necessary additional oversight or scrutiny.
Since its inception in 2013, the Center has failed to take meaningful steps to address systematic failures, and as such, we request the Department of Justice investigate due process violations and other criminal offenses that the Center has not addressed. While the Center claims to have the legal authority to prosecute criminal cases against disabled persons, the Center brings criminal charges against less than 2.5% of total cases of substantiated abuse or neglect of disabled persons and has declined to investigate nearly 1,400 deaths of developmentally disabled individuals residing in state care.
Further, it is our understanding that the Center has frequently neglected to report instances of ongoing abuse to law enforcement. Records obtained and published by the New York Times indicate that only 5% of the 13,000 cases of abuse recorded in state-operated facilities for the disabled were referred to law enforcement. In April 2018, a 34 year old male was found dead in his room a day after complaining of having trouble breathing, however no official investigation has been conducted to date past an insufficient internal review conducted by the care facility. Instead of referring the overwhelming majority of cases to law enforcement officials, the Center allowed facilities to conduct internal reviews, which often times included disciplinary actions unbefitting of the allegations. In fact, through information obtained by Freedom of Information Law requests filed, the New York Department of Health (NYDOH) revealed that it never received a case from the Justice Center between June 30, 2013, and April 1, 2016. This failure to report to NYDOH appears to violate the provision within the Center’s founding charter which mandates that it forward substantiated reports of abuse and neglect to the Medicaid Inspector General. This practice is troublesome as the Center’s encouragement of internal reviews such as this discourages transparency and public reporting of inappropriate and potentially criminal acts.
Additionally, the Albany Times Union reported at least 25 registered sex offenders residing in state-run facilities for the developmentally disabled in Suffolk, Washington and Franklin Counties, and these are just 3 counties of New York State. One former New York special prosecutor and inspector general, Patricia Gunning, investigated strangulation assault at State facilities. Ms. Gunning’s investigation, as reported by Newsday, was rejected and denied by state officials concerned about “the optics” of this subject. When Ms. Gunning brought this complaint up the chain to the state’s employment assistance program, she was warned it would destroy her career. Soon after, Ms. Gunning was told that the Governor’s office wanted to take the Justice Center in a “new direction,” and was subsequently fired. This clear lack of appropriate oversight must be fully investigated for the appropriate parties to be held accountable and to ensure that these practices cease immediately.
New York spends over $75 billion per year on its Medicaid program, second only to California, but fails to properly take care of its most vulnerable population by an independent statewide level law enforcement agency designed to protect disabled individuals. This is a blatant misuse of taxpayer dollars and an investigation is critical.
Individuals with disabilities deserve full and equal protection under the law, however, disabled individuals in New York State have been unable to avail themselves of the criminal justice system due to the lack of action taken by the Center. Therefore, we request the Department of Justice investigate the lack of prosecutions, referrals and due process violations that have been alleged.
Thank you in advance for your time and attention to this matter.
