State Closes 4 Group Homes After Boy Drowns

VENTURA —  A swarm of state officials shut down four juvenile-care homes Friday and slapped the owner with allegations of failing to properly care for the homes’ troubled youths, including a 15-year-old boy who recently drowned and a teenage girl who they said was sexually assaulted.

Agents from the state Department of Social Services helped escort the remaining 14 youths from Amberwood Inc. group homes in east Ventura and made sure all of the juveniles were relocated safely to other facilities.

“The death is the reason we felt we needed to act quickly,” said Dianne Kryter, district manager of the department’s Community Care Licensing Division in Santa Barbara.

“No child should be placed in a home where they can be harmed,” she said. “That is what has happened here.”

In addition to suspending Amberwood’s license, state officials initiated legal action to permanently ban two of the company’s employees from working in a similarly licensed facility.

Those employees, administrator Hector Alvarez and facility manager Michael Anthony Brown, have “engaged in conduct which is inimical to the health, morals, welfare, or safety of children in care,” according to administrative charges issued by the department.

Neither Alvarez nor Brown could be reached for comment Friday. Angelo Elardo, a retired dentist who owns Amberwood, also did not return phone calls Friday.

But in an interview last week, Elardo defended the care provided by his group homes and their staff. “We have dedicated people and qualified people, contrary to what Community Care Licensing says,” he said.

Under state law, Amberwood can contest the department’s accusations and request a hearing before an administrative law judge to restore its license. If no hearing is requested, the department must issue a permanent order within 30 days.

Amberwood has four licensed group homes in Ventura, located at 10127 Jamestown St., 267 Montebello Ave., 8204 Tiara St. and 8524 Roswell St. The company receives $4,423 a month from the government to care for each child placed by county probation departments or child protective services.

In support of its suspension order, the state issued 25 pages of accusations against Amberwood that detail a long list of violations.

Many of them involve a camping trip arranged by Amberwood officials in mid-August that ended with the boy’s accidental drowning at Zaca Lake in northern Santa Barbara County.

*

At first, Amberwood employees took the youths to El Capitan State Beach, but the group was evicted after Brown allowed children to roam around unsupervised and some of the youths got in a fight with others visiting the park, according to the document released by the state agency Friday.

Moving to Zaca Lake on Aug. 14, Brown required the youths to help unload camping equipment, but there was only 2 1/2 gallons of water for the children and staff. “After completing this task, the children were hot and exhausted,” the document said.

Two employees went swimming with nine of the children at Zaca Lake, where there was no certified lifeguard on duty. None of the Amberwood staff members were certified lifeguards, according to the state document.

The administrative charges said Amberwood failed to provide sufficient staff to supervise the swimmers, or provide the 15-year-old boy with adequate swim trunks.

Instead, Fred Young was wearing knee-length shorts and a belt when he slipped beneath the surface of the water. Although staff repeatedly dove for the boy, they were unable to reach him, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department reported. His body was found by Sheriff’s Department divers the next morning under 25 feet of water.

The weight of his clothing may have contributed to his drowning, the state charges said.

*

There were other troubles at Zaca Lake too. Brown brought some alcohol on the trip and failed to keep it from some of the boys, according to the document.

And, the charges said, two of Brown’s friends wrestled one shirtless boy to the gravel-covered ground. One of the friends put his knee on the child’s back, “declaring it was like a hold a cop would use.”

The document also lists violations at the group homes for allegedly mishandling medication, improperly allowing a razor at the bedside of a child with a history of depression and failing to supervise two girls who got in a fight with scissors that left a puncture wound on one child’s neck.

Alvarez, administrator of the group homes, was cited for failing to spend enough time at the homes to properly manage them as required by law.

Earlier this month, Amberwood placed teenage boys and girls at the same group home on Tiara Street, without state approval for a coed facility, the charges state. On Aug. 4, two teenage boys sexually assaulted one of the girls, the document said.

Three days later, Alvarez told state officials that all girls had been moved out of Amberwood’s group homes, the document said. But a state official, it said, later saw a girl still at the Tiara Street home.

“It is an unusual and rare occurrence to do temporary suspension orders,” said Kryter, the Community Care Licensing Division’s district manager. “When we do this, it is because of very serious violations.”

*

Kryter praised county probation officials and other placement officers for quickly descending on Amberwood group homes to take the juveniles to other facilities.

About 2:45 p.m., two white sedans and a white Ford pickup belonging to the Kern County Probation Department pulled up to the Tiara Street house. Five boys filed out of the house with their belongings, placing them in the bed of the truck.

A youth program worker from Kern County watched as the dour-faced youths carried bags and boxes from the house to the truck.

A neighbor of the group home on Roswell Street sympathized with the youths. “These kids are troubled kids and they’re scared to death, and I feel for them.”

Weiss is a Times staff writer and Steepleton is a correspondent.