And then there's this:
Mentally ill forced to go naked, perform sex acts at group home
Tuesday, November 8, 2005
WICHITA, Kansas (AP) -- The married owners of a group home for the
mentally
ill were convicted Monday of enslaving its residents, forcing them to
work
naked and perform videotaped sex acts.
Jurors found that Arlan Kaufman, 69, also illegally billed residents'
families and the federal government for therapy.
The Kaufmans were convicted of 30 federal charges, including health
care
fraud, Medicare fraud, forced labor and holding clients in involuntary
servitude at the Kaufman House Residential Treatment Center.
Arlan Kaufman also was found guilty of making a false representation.
The convictions could put the two in prison for the rest of their
lives.
The couple showed little emotion but briefly hugged and kissed before
being
led from the courtroom to jail. The jury is to return Tuesday to hear
arguments on the prosecution's request the couple forfeit $289,727.
Federal prosecutors contended the Kaufmans controlled the lives of the
mentally ill residents, including forcing them to work on their farm
and
deciding who could wear clothes.
The couple was accused of forcing residents to masturbate, fondle each
other
and shave each other's genitals -- activities Arlan Kaufman videotaped.
The Kaufmans claimed that nude therapy sessions and other treatment
methods
had therapeutic value for schizophrenic patients, and that having
residents
act out problem behavior helped them avoid repeating it. Arlan Kaufman
insisted at trial that the residents' behavior was voluntary.
Prosecutors called it abuse and said it spanned more than 20 years
while the
couple billed Medicare more than $216,000. The Kaufmans incorporated
their
unlicensed treatment center in 1980 and ran it until their arrests in
October 2004.
Justice Department lawyer Kristy Parker told jurors the residents were
turned into "uncompensated actors in a never-ending pornographic
movie."
The defense had portrayed them as respected professionals who had
raised
three children of their own.
"It was therapy. No one was harmed. They were helped," Arlan Kaufman's
attorney, Tom Haney, told jurors.
Linda Kaufman's attorney, Steve Joseph, argued prosecutors had no solid
evidence against her. He noted that in one videotaped session, she was
reading a newspaper and didn't even look at the nude resident.
_________________ Throughout his life, from childhood until death, he was beset by severe swings of mood. His depressions frequently encouraged, and were exacerbated by, his various vices. His character mixed a superficial Enlightenment sensibility for reason and taste with a genuine and somewhat Romantic love of the sublime and a propensity for occasionally puerile whimsy.
harry Wrote: I understand that you, of all people, know this crisis and, in your own way, are working to address it. You, the madras-pantsed julip-sipping Southern cracker and me, the oldman hippie California fruit cake are brothers in the struggle to save our country.
FT Wrote: LooGAR (the straw that stirs the drink)
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