Whistleblowers Call Out California Group Home for Abuse Against Disabled Residents

This originally appeared on www.kqed.org  by: Chris Egusa  December 2023

Katrina Turner’s eyes lit up when her father, Pat Turner, and his fiancée, Elaine Sheffer, walked through the door of the beige stucco house in the Sacramento County community of Fair Oaks, where she lives. She made soft moaning sounds as her parents embraced her. Katrina is 43 years old, developmentally disabled and nonverbal, but she has her own ways of communicating.

Katrina’s family has been worried about her. Just a few months after she moved to this group home for people with disabilities who need 24-hour care, known as an Enhanced Behavioral Supports Home (EBSH), mysterious injuries started appearing on her body. There were holes in her walls, and Katrina had become less responsive.

Turner and Sheffer were used to facilities letting Katrina down. Children with disabilities are far more likely to experience abuse, and they said Katrina is no exception. Scars from past placements mark her skin, they said, and although she’s barely middle-aged, Katrina walks with the stooped shuffle of someone much older. But her family had hoped that here, at the Illinois Home — an EBSH named for the street where it’s located — Katrina had finally found a place where she’d get the 24– 7 care she needed.

Instead, Turner and Sheffer’s concerns have turned into a full-fledged investigation of the management and practices at the Illinois home.

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