Commission aims to protect the disabled from abuse

DANVERS – Forty-two homicides in Massachusetts last year were cases that involved previous instances of abuse.”Domestic violence is murder waiting to happen,” said Essex County District Attorney Jonathan W. Blodgett, noting that the number of incidents related to abuse is on the rise among the state’s juveniles. “That is a disturbing trend.”The frequency of abuse against those with developmental disabilities also has increased markedly over the past decade, but a new initiative by the state Disabled Persons Protection Commission (DPPC) is forging widespread inter-agency partnerships aimed at bringing those numbers down.According to DPPC Executive Director Nancy Alterio, guest speaker at a Blodgett-hosted breakfast for law enforcement officers, healthcare specialists, social workers and activists Wednesday at the Sheraton Ferncroft Resort, the tide is turning against those who would abuse the disabled.To make her point, Alterio showed graphic images of victims physically, sexually and emotionally abused by relatives, acquaintances and, all too often, their paid caregivers. She focused on the so-called House of Horrors that was discovered in Raynham in 1997. Two brothers – Harold and Karol Simonton – had brutally tortured two adult men with developmental disabilities named Tim and Al who were under their care.Alterio asked rhetorically, “What went wrong? How was this allowed to happen?” She and others have blamed “systemic failure” as the root cause, a fundamental lack of communication among the welfare and healthcare agencies, police, schools, businesses and other organizations that had come into contact with the two victims over the years.Such situations should no longer be allowed to exist, which is why Alterio and the DPPC have restructured the reporting system and how incident information is filed and cross-referenced. In addition to educating law enforcement officers on how to handle cases involving those with developmental disabilities, a new project seeks to educate the victims themselves so that they can recognize abuse and report it.The Quincy-based DPPC has 32 staff members, including four state troopers led by Detective Lt. Richard Nagle, assigned to investigate cases involving abuse of the mentally retarded and the disabled.”People were getting away with raping the disabled,” said Alterio, who showed video footage from the case of Roma Roukey, repeatedly raped by her nightshift healthcare aid. Roukey was not mentally impaired, but she was unable to speak and had difficulty communicating due to physical impairments. She eventually was able to alert another healthcare aid on the dayshift and an investigation was launched. The suspect was convicted.New laws in Massachusetts have attached additional prison time to crimes against the elderly and the disabled, but bringing the abusers to justice isn’t easy. According to Alterio, 90 percent of people with developmental disabilities experience abuse and violence at least once in their lifetime. Sixty-two percent of women with disabilities – emotional, physical or mental – have been sexually abused. Eight-one percent of all psychiatric inpatients have been sexually assaulted.To report abuse to the DPPC, call the hotline at 800-426-9009. To contact the DPPC for more information, call 617-727-6465.