Dorothy's Story
By Anthony Colarossi | Orlando Sentinel Staff Writer
August 3, 2003
Sitting on her bed, Dorothy looks like any other 18-year old who has just left high school and is preparing for adulthood.
Two pictures of her jubilant graduating class hang above her bed. Mardi Gras beads dangle from the bedpost. And she has hung a few frames of rap star Nelly around the room as well.
But any notion of a typical adolescence disappears when Dorothy starts talking about her hobbies and her past.
She enjoys Magic Markers and coloring books, and she often clutches a teddy bear for comfort. She has one more love, too.
Thumbing through her photo albums, she stares at dozens of pictures of a 2-year old girl with Dorothy's blue eyes, high cheeks and sandy brown hair.
This is her daughter, conceived after James M. Carver, a caregiver in a state licensed group home, repeatedly raped Dorothy.
Prosecutors considered Carver's behavior especially vile because he was supposed to be watching over Dorothy, who is mentally retarded.
Carver told Dorothy he loved her, authorities said. But when she became pregnant, he told her to lie about the identity of the father.
In 1999 the state placed Dorothy at Sandy Terrace, a Southwest Florida group home run by people with a history of serious licensing violations. This is where Carver coaxed Dorothy into repeated sex acts while she was only 15.
Dorothy gave birth. Carver went to prison. The state took custody of the child. And now, Florida's Department of Children & Families is being sued for negligence.
Dorothy now lives in a supervised residential setting near Tampa.
Sarasota based attorneys Drake Buckman and Richard A. Filson, who filed the suit, said Dorothy's case is an example of the state's inability to assure the safety of its most vulnerable residents: the developmentally disabled.
Other advocates throughout the state agree, viewing Dorothy's case and others like it as evidence that Florida is repeatedly failing to protect developmentally disabled residents in group homes.
Monumental' Crisis:
No one can say how many mentally retarded women are raped while in the state's care, and it's likely no one will ever find out. The victims often cannot speak for themselves and, when they can, their caregivers frequently don't believe them, experts say.
But anecdotal evidence which sometimes surfaces only when the victims become pregnant is growing.
Dorothy is among at least a handful of cases in the past few years that have come to light after the victims became pregnant.
Advocates nationwide say these pregnancies are symptoms of a much larger tragedy. In fact, they say, violence against developmentally disabled people is an epidemic largely ignored because few crimes against them are reported.
"Both research and the experience of rape crisis service providers tell us that the problem is monumental," said Debbie Rogers, director of public awareness at the Florida Council Against Sexual Violence.
Women with developmental disabilities, she said, are particularly vulnerable.
"A vast majority of disabled people have been victimized in one way or another," she said. "Communication and mobility issues make disabled people particularly vulnerable to sexual predators."
To varying degrees, those conditions have contributed to a growing awareness of assaults against retarded victims in Florida.
In the past three years, there have been at least five sexual assaults in group homes that resulted in pregnancies. Two rapes occurred in the Orlando area; one in the Miami area; and Filson represents Dorothy and another retarded client in South Florida raped in a foster home.
A year ago, a severely disabled woman gave birth to a son after being raped at Laurel Hill Cluster in Pine Hills. Phillip Mebane, an ex-employee, was charged with sexual battery of a helpless person.
In late May, a Miami-Dade judge ordered an abortion for a 28-year old rape victim, known in court documents as Z.H., out of concern the pregnancy could threaten her life. Z.H. was raped while living in a South Florida group home.
Then J.D.S., a 22-year old woman who was raped and became pregnant while living in a southwest Orlando group home, brought nationwide attention to the care of the developmentally disabled in May.
Far more retarded than Dorothy, J.D.S. had no legal guardian to help her make decisions about her pregnancy. Her case prompted a reform effort to ensure that anyone who needs a guardian gets one.
A sixth victim, who was raped and became pregnant while living in a St. Lucie County group home in 1991, was awarded $7.6 million by a jury and the Legislature authorized the payment last year. When the state ceased its aggressive defense against the woman, Gov. Jeb Bush said, "We made a mistake, and this child deserves better."
Because of the nature of the crimes, the Orlando Sentinel is not identifying the women.
As more of these victims become known, advocates think it's long past time for the state to be more aggressive in protecting them.
"We all need to review our relationships [with developmentally disabled people] and think, 'Gosh, how can this keep happening' " said Deborah Linton, assistant director with the Association for Retarded Citizens of Florida. "When you have vulnerable people, you will always have someone out there willing to take advantage of them. But the tragedy of these cases didn't teach us anything, if we don't improve things. We should and could do more to stop it."
Plans to ensure legal guardians for anyone who needs them might help, Linton said. Employing same sex caregivers is another idea.
"As far as monitoring homes, more can be done," Linton said.
DCF blamed
In Florida, the main line of defense is the Department of Children & Families, the agency that licenses group homes and makes sure they are safe.
"This is an agency that should be above reproach," Buckman said. "But this is an agency that can't prevent retarded kids from being raped in its own custody."
In Dorothy's lawsuit, Filson accuses DCF officials of placing her in the group home even though they had found a long history of serious problems by its owners that eventually led to the home's closing.
"They moved her from the frying pan and into the fire," he said. "But if she hadn't gotten pregnant, we would have never found out [about the abuse]."
DCF Secretary Jerry Regier, in an e?mail statement, said he takes Dorothy's case and others like it "very seriously."
"Florida's developmental disabilities professionals work constantly to ensure that our clients are able to be self-sufficient to the maximum extent possible and in the safest environments," Regier said, noting that both Dorothy and her child are now safe.
Yet critics point to another side of DCF that they say shows an agency in denial or worse, an agency with two faces.
In its legal defense of Filson's lawsuit, DCF alleges that Dorothy herself was "guilty of negligence, which caused or contributed" to her situation because she did not resist Carver's advances.
"Any allegations relating to sexual intercourse and/or rape was in fact consensual," DCF attorney Lynne Dailey wrote in late June in the state's response to Dorothy's lawsuit.
Advocates for the disabled find the agency's position troubling. They want to know how DCF can blame a retarded rape victim when her attacker already has admitted guilt and is in prison.
"If you're in a caregiver role, [having sex with a retarded client] is just not consensual," said Linton, with the Association for Retarded Citizens. "I'm sorry to hear that."
Other advocates are just as troubled, but not surprised, at DCF's defense in Dorothy's lawsuit.
"It's obvious they haven't learned a thing, and it's a continuing problem," said Lance Block, past president of the Association for Retarded Persons of Palm Beach County.
"These are special needs people. They need extraordinary care, and they're not getting it from this department," said Block, who has a daughter with Down syndrome and is a longtime advocate for the developmentally disabled.
"I think the cases that you're able to find and report on is just the tip of the iceberg," he said.
"What is the rate of sexual abuse in our group homes that the state is paying for?"
Block, an attorney who represented Z.H. in the Miami case and the woman who won the $7.6 million jury award, said the Legislature should explore this question and demand the data from DCF. He notes that the state's Bill of Rights of Persons Who Are Developmentally Disabled specifically states that this group of people has "the right to be free from sexual abuse in residential facilities."
"The Legislature ought to make sure that it's being enforced," Block said.
DCF spokesman Bob Brooks said the agency is trying to adhere to the spirit of the bill.
"If one of our clients suffers a sexual assault, that's one too many. We haven't done enough," Brooks said. "It's certainly our goal and our desire that none of that happens."
'Happy tears'
Dorothy's life of abuse did not start at the Sandy Terrace group home.
DCF placed her there after discovering that her mother had been hiring her out as a prostitute when she was a child.
And now, the tragedy has come full circle because her baby is a ward of the state.
Dorothy discovered she was pregnant in early 2001.
"I was wondering why I was getting sick all the time," she recalled.
When Carver first learned Dorothy was pregnant, he told her to tell authorities she had sex with a man while attending a YMCA camp.
Later, however, he showered her with gifts and promised to care for her, she said in an interview with the Sentinel.
"He said he would be there for me, or something like that," said Dorothy, showing no anger.
At the time, Dorothy also told police that Carver had said he was planning to break up with his girlfriend, live with her and raise the child.
She doesn't remember all of her encounters with Carver. In an interview with the Sentinel, she said she understood that he did something wrong.
In January, Carver pleaded guilty to lewd sexual battery of a minor and lewd conduct involving a minor. Prosecutor John L. Burns said the plea deal was reached to spare Dorothy from going through trial and reliving her experiences.
Burns said the case was troubling because Dorothy appeared convinced that Carver loved her.
"I think she genuinely felt they had a relationship. She was in love with him," Burns said. "This case was especially sad because of the way the victim viewed it."
In spring 2001, Dorothy gave birth to her baby. She remembers pain, an hour long labor and then absolute joy.
"When I put her on my chest," Dorothy said, "tears, happy tears."
She lived with her child in a supervised setting for eight months. But then DCF took away the baby, concluding Dorothy wasn't capable of caring for her.
Apparently she left the child, unattended, in a bathtub. It's not clear for how long because DCF is not commenting on specifics.
Dorothy, whose IQ is below 60, remembers having problems handling her daughter when she was an infant.
She desperately wants her daughter back and admits making mistakes. But she says she has matured since the incident, which occurred when she was 16. And she hopes the state will give her another chance.
"I was getting frustrated with her. I didn't know what she wanted," Dorothy said. "Now if I can't [handle her], I'll ask for help. Now that she's older, I can stick her in a room until she calms down."
While separated from her daughter, Dorothy completed high school and finished parenting classes. She wants a job working with animals, perhaps with a veterinarian. She's ambitious.
"I don't want to end up working in some restaurant," she laughed.
A history of trouble
While Dorothy finds herself in a safe, supervised setting for now, there's no guarantee that will last forever especially, her lawyers say, if she finds herself in a state?licensed group home.
Her case illustrates how the state can place an extremely vulnerable person, who already had been victimized by her mother, into another abusive environment.
SMORGAN Inc., the company running the group home where Dorothy was raped, had a long list of serious licensing violations in the years leading up to Dorothy's placement at Sandy Terrace. That group home, in Port Charlotte, was shut down in 2001. But its closing came only after one of the other Southwest Florida facilities operated by SMORGAN burned down, killing two residents there.
The SMORGAN group homes, which were owned and operated by Vicky Swan, became infamous for the abuse and neglect that occurred at the facilities. They had other cases of sexual abuse involving another client and another Swan employee. The homes had more than 120 violations of state regulations.
Residents were fed rotten food. They were physically and verbally abused. Sometimes they were locked in their rooms.
Filson found a Dec. 7, 2000, letter from DCF denying the relicensing for Sandy Terrace. This was shortly before Dorothy discovered she was pregnant.
"During the last three years, [DCF] has continually identified licensing issues at Swan's group homes," the letter states. "Due to an ongoing lack of remedy by the provider, we have no other choice but to take further action for the consumers of the department."
In an August 2002 letter to then?DCF Secretary Kathleen Kearney, Filson wrote that DCF knew of problems at SMORGAN group homes but "did not remove [Dorothy] from a placement that posed a danger to her."
Swan, also known as Elizabeth Morgan, is named as a defendant in Dorothy's lawsuit. Also named are Carver; Sonya Bell, another caregiver at Sandy Terrace; and the Children's Home Society of Florida, which was responsible for monitoring and inspecting the group home.
Attorneys for Bell and Vicky Swan did not return calls. Douglas Lumpkin, attorney for the Children's Home Society, refused to speak about the specifics of the case.
"I don't think these things should be tried in the newspaper," Lumpkin said. "In general, we believe the Children's Home Society acted appropriately and fulfilled their responsibility under the circumstances."
To Dorothy's attorneys and other advocates for the disabled, however, DCF cannot escape the fact that Dorothy was raped in a group home licensed by the agency by a person who was supposed to be taking care of her.
Dorothy says she hasn't heard from Carver since he went to prison, where he is serving an 11½ year sentence.
And despite his imprisonment, the state hasn't severed his parental rights yet. That leaves open the possibility that members of Carver's family can be considered for the child's placement another insult against Dorothy, Buckman said.
"What more does she need to go through that she hasn't gone through?"
Stephanie Erickson of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Anthony Colarossi can be reached at 407-420-6218 or acolarossi@orlandosentinel.com.
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