The Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office is asking the district attorney to file charges in six cases involving residents at state-run Pueblo Regional Center group homes who say they were abused.
that his office investigated 19 complaints of long-term abuse, maltreatment and unlawful sexual contact at the group homes. The office ultimately referred six of those cases to the district attorney for review.
The sheriff’s office is still investigating four cases.
Pueblo Regional Center is operated by the Colorado Department of Human Services and runs 11 group homes in Pueblo West for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It’s unclear from which specific group homes the allegations stem.
Human Services director Reggie Bicha said in an e-mail that the investigations strengthen the state’s commitment to stabilizing the center.
In April, , and the director was replaced.
The state human services department announced the investigation at a joint news conference with the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office.
“The allegations and concerns were of such a nature that we determined the need to review all of the interactions where the sheriff’s office was contacted regarding individuals at (the center),” Taylor said at the time. “We consider these individuals to be some of the most vulnerable in our community, and we want to ensure they are well-cared-for and -protected.”
During the investigation of the alleged abuse, the for what the former director of the Pueblo center called strip searches of the 62 residents.
Former director Valita Speedie also said Bicha plans eventually to close or consolidate the regional centers in Pueblo, Grand Junction and Wheat Ridge.
were in the best interest of residents and he has no intention of closing any of the regional centers.
He has said a team of nurses was sent in March to search for evidence related to the abuse allegations without permission from any of the 62 residents’ guardians — family members, individuals or charities with the legal rights to speak for individual residents. Investigators performed intimate examinations, or “body audits,” of residents to determine whether wrongdoing had taken place, Bicha said.
The state Department of Public Health and Environment is investigating a civil rights complaint by the guardians against the state human services department.
