By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — Opposing lawyers painted diverging portraits of the Conway Human Development Center today as a trial over the future of the facility that houses 500 mentally and physically disabled adults and children got under way in federal court.

A U.S. Justice Department lawyer argued that residents of the center are not receiving proper care and education, while an attorney for the center said residents receive appropriate care from the nationally certified facility.

The trial before U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes is expected to last four to six weeks.

The federal government sued the state in 2009, claiming residents of the facility were improperly cared for in violation of their constitutional rights, the Americans with Disabilities Act and other federal laws.

“This case is about protecting the rights … of these individuals,” Justice Department lawyer Benjamin Tayloe said in opening arguments today.

Tayloe said employees at the facility are improperly trained on how to monitor patients and that patients are routinely subjected to dangerous conditions, including the use of restraints.

He also contended state officials do not give families of patients information about other options they might have, such as community-based services, adding that the center “exists as part of a system that needlessly drives individuals toward institutionalization.”

Thomas York, attorney for the center, argued the Justice Department is opposed to any institutional care for the disabled and that its case is based on biased information.

York said the Conway center is accredited and regulated by outside agencies.
He said information provided by the department during the trial would be presented out of context in an effort to make it appear things at the facility are worse than they actually are.

No facility is perfect, York said, and if “that is the standard, there is not a facility in this country, including hospitals, that could operate anymore.”

“What they are trying to do is sensationalize to get this emotional response from the court … or whoever they’re trying to appeal to,” he said.

About 100 people crowded into Holmes’ courtroom for opening arguments, and another two dozen or so viewed a video feed of the proceedings from an adjacent courtroom.

The first witness to testify today was Carla Jo Osgood, a consultant who evaluates patient care at facilities. She said staff at the Conway center were either improperly trained or not trained at all in how to monitor residents and that the facility failed to adequately protect residents from harm and the risk of harm.

In May, the Justice Department filed a second lawsuit against the state alleging that the five other centers the state operates to care for the developmentally disabled are needlessly institutionalizing people in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

State officials denied the allegations, but that same month Gov. Mike Beebe urged that the Alexander Human Development Center be closed. He said a state report revealed chronic deficiencies at the facility.