Lawsuit Filed to Halt Transfers From Fairview

COSTA MESA — Residents of Fairview Developmental Center are being moved from the institution into inadequately supervised group homes, sometimes resulting in their injury or even death, a suit filed against the center alleges.

The class-action suit on behalf of about 800 disabled adults still at Fairview, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Central California, seeks to halt the moves. It also names as defendants the state Department of Developmental Services, six other regional centers and several individuals involved in overseeing the movement of residents from Fairview.

U.S. District Judge Gary L. Taylor denied the request for a temporary restraining order that would have immediately halted the transfers. But he scheduled a hearing for a permanent restraining order for March 31.

The movement of residents from Fairview, which cares for people with multiple, serious disabilities, to community homes is required by the 1994 settlement of a suit obliging the state to reduce the number of residents living in its institutions. The settlement required 400 of Fairview’s 1,000 or so residents to be moved into group homes or other living arrangements. So far, 200 to 300 have been transferred.

While the settlement pleased people who wanted their relatives to have greater access to group homes where they could receive more personalized care, the decision frightened and angered others who say their relatives cannot receive high quality, medically skilled care outside an institution.

The class-action suit was initiated by Dr. William Cable, Fairview’s chief of medical staff, who filed suit against the developmental center in January. Cable’s prior suit alleged that he was retaliated against for objecting to resident transfers from Fairview. In court papers Thursday, Cable sought to become the legal guardian for two of the patients he names as lead plaintiffs in the class-action suit.

One of the lead plaintiffs, Valdina R., is a profoundly retarded 50-year-old woman who was sent to a community home in San Diego County over Cable’s objections, according to the lawsuit. Valdina R. suffers from a condition that causes her to roam at night, seeking hair brushes, tooth brushes and other objects, which she eats, the lawsuit states.

She requires 24-hour attention and should not be out of an institution, the lawsuit said.

Like the other 800 adults represented in the suit, Valdina R. has no conservator or guardian--no one with legal clout who could urge that she remain at Fairview, the lawsuit alleges.

Her case, in Cable’s view, illustrates one of the central charges of the lawsuit: that residents without anyone to advocate for them are vulnerable to being placed in inappropriate surroundings.

“The exiting process denies the ones without conservators due process because only a conservator can object,” said attorney Francis X. Hardiman, who filed the suit. “So then the patient is out of the hospital and has no ability to access the state fair hearing proceedings.”

Also, other doctors witnessed the retaliation against Cable and now are reluctant to publicly object to inappropriate transfers, Hardiman said.

Cable’s class-action suit lists what he calls several questionable deaths and points to a University of California, Riverside, researcher’s work showing that from 1980 to 1992, developmentally disabled people living in the community died at a rate 72% higher than those in institutions.

The suit and related court papers cite the deaths of former Fairview clients who were moved to group homes. For example, the suit alleges that client “R.D.” walked through a plate-glass window at his community residence and died in a San Diego hospital emergency room in 1996. He had been released in 1995. The suit also says another client died of pneumonia within six months of leaving Fairview.

“Community placement in California represents a significantly increased risk to life and liberty,” the lawsuit said.

Many of the defendants had not been served with the suit by late Friday afternoon and would not comment on its allegations. But Dawn Lemonds, the director of South Coast Regional Project, which oversees the community placement of Fairview residents, said any description of the transfers that left out the program’s many successes was incomplete. Lemonds also was named in the lawsuit.

“We do this because people deserve to live in a home-like setting just like you and I,” Lemonds said. “Have I seen people flourish once they’ve been moved into a home? Absolutely. That’s absolutely the truth.”