Rotenberg founder set to face charges - shock center

[Guest guest]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/05/25/rotenberg_founder_set_to_face_charges/

Rotenberg founder set to face charges

Expected to quit over ’07 shock case

The founder of the controversial Judge Rotenberg

Educational Center is scheduled to face criminal charges in

Dedham today arising from a night in 2007 when two special

needs teenagers at the center were wrongfully administered

dozens of electrical shocks, according to the father of one

of the victims and another person with knowledge about the

case.

In a deal reached with the state attorney general’s office,

Israel, 77, is expected to be spared prison time in

return for stepping down from the Canton-based center that

he founded 40 years ago and accepting a five-year

probationary term, said Dumas, the father of one of

the two victims in the 2007 case who said he spoke yesterday

with prosecutors. As part of the agreement, the school’s

day-to-day activities will also be overseen by a

court-approved monitor.

A court official who works at the Norfolk County Superior

Court said that today’s schedule of cases lists a defendant

named Israel facing two charges, misleading a grand

jury and accessory after the fact to a crime.

The charges against Israel are believed to be related to

the destruction of some of the center’s digital surveillance

tapes that would have showed what occurred the night of Aug.

26, 2007, in one of the center’s residential group homes in

Stoughton. That night, staffers received a prank phone call

from someone posing as a supervisor, saying two teenagers,

including Dumas’s son, should be administered electrical

shocks as punishment for bad behavior earlier that day.

The attorney general’s office declined comment on the case

yesterday, as did Ernest Corrigan, a longtime spokesman for

Israel and the center. On May 2, Corrigan had issued a press

release announcing Israel’s retirement, effective June 1. In

the release, which made no mention of a pending criminal

case, Israel is quoted as saying, “I am now almost 78 years

old, and it is time for me to move over and let others take

the reins.’’

The case marks a dramatic turn in the career of the

Harvard-trained psychologist, though it does not appear to

end the center’s unorthodox practices that have generated

national controversy: the use of skin-shock treatments to

discipline behaviorally troubled children.

His tactics have been condemned as barbaric and savage by

many top medical and mental health professionals. But

despite some injuries and even deaths at the facility, the

center has continued to get state approval to operate as a

special-needs school serving some 200 students with serious

emotional and behavioral problems, including autism and

intellectual disabilities.

Its most effective backers have been the parents of some of

these troubled students who say Israel’s center accepted

their child when no other school would. Israel has said his

methods work and have virtually eliminated the use of

psychotropic drugs at his center.

In the press release announcing Israel’s departure earlier

this month, one of the center’s board members, Margaret

Vaughan, a retired professor of psychology at Salem State

University, described Israel as a “heroic figure’’ to

thousands of families. She said he helped the families who

saw the center as “their last thread of hope’’ for their

children.

The center has launched a national search for a successor

to Israel. The center is being run on an interim basis by

assistant executive director Glenda Crookes.

The case against Israel allegedly centers on the tapes that

captured the wrongful shocks delivered in 2007, said people

familiar with the case.

The center has a policy of monitoring

students’ behavior with help from remote surveillance

cameras. Those monitoring the tapes had the option of

ordering skin-shock treatments via telephone if they

witnessed inappropriate actions, even hours after they

occurred.

Based on the phone call, staffers woke up Dumas’s son and

he was given 77 skin-shock treatments over three hours while

being restrained on a flat surface. Another teenager was

given about two dozen shocks.

The center acknowledged mistakes made by staff that night,

and vowed to change many of its policies, particularly the

issuance of shock treatment orders via telephone.

Dumas said his son remained at the Rotenberg center for

another year, but was moved to a different group home and

taken off the skin-shock treatments. He said his son, now

22, is now living on his own and working two jobs.

Dumas said he was told by the attorney general’s office to

keep secret the news of Israel’s criminal charges, but he

wanted to speak out when approached yesterday by the Globe

about the case. “I don’t want to do anything to protect

Israel,’’ he said.

Wen can be reached at wen@....

McGrory can be reached at mcgrory@....

© Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.

[Guest guest]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/05/25/rotenberg_founder_set_to_face_charges/

Rotenberg founder set to face charges

Expected to quit over ’07 shock case

The founder of the controversial Judge Rotenberg

Educational Center is scheduled to face criminal charges in

Dedham today arising from a night in 2007 when two special

needs teenagers at the center were wrongfully administered

dozens of electrical shocks, according to the father of one

of the victims and another person with knowledge about the

case.

In a deal reached with the state attorney general’s office,

Israel, 77, is expected to be spared prison time in

return for stepping down from the Canton-based center that

he founded 40 years ago and accepting a five-year

probationary term, said Dumas, the father of one of

the two victims in the 2007 case who said he spoke yesterday

with prosecutors. As part of the agreement, the school’s

day-to-day activities will also be overseen by a

court-approved monitor.

A court official who works at the Norfolk County Superior

Court said that today’s schedule of cases lists a defendant

named Israel facing two charges, misleading a grand

jury and accessory after the fact to a crime.

The charges against Israel are believed to be related to

the destruction of some of the center’s digital surveillance

tapes that would have showed what occurred the night of Aug.

26, 2007, in one of the center’s residential group homes in

Stoughton. That night, staffers received a prank phone call

from someone posing as a supervisor, saying two teenagers,

including Dumas’s son, should be administered electrical

shocks as punishment for bad behavior earlier that day.

The attorney general’s office declined comment on the case

yesterday, as did Ernest Corrigan, a longtime spokesman for

Israel and the center. On May 2, Corrigan had issued a press

release announcing Israel’s retirement, effective June 1. In

the release, which made no mention of a pending criminal

case, Israel is quoted as saying, “I am now almost 78 years

old, and it is time for me to move over and let others take

the reins.’’

The case marks a dramatic turn in the career of the

Harvard-trained psychologist, though it does not appear to

end the center’s unorthodox practices that have generated

national controversy: the use of skin-shock treatments to

discipline behaviorally troubled children.

His tactics have been condemned as barbaric and savage by

many top medical and mental health professionals. But

despite some injuries and even deaths at the facility, the

center has continued to get state approval to operate as a

special-needs school serving some 200 students with serious

emotional and behavioral problems, including autism and

intellectual disabilities.

Its most effective backers have been the parents of some of

these troubled students who say Israel’s center accepted

their child when no other school would. Israel has said his

methods work and have virtually eliminated the use of

psychotropic drugs at his center.

In the press release announcing Israel’s departure earlier

this month, one of the center’s board members, Margaret

Vaughan, a retired professor of psychology at Salem State

University, described Israel as a “heroic figure’’ to

thousands of families. She said he helped the families who

saw the center as “their last thread of hope’’ for their

children.

The center has launched a national search for a successor

to Israel. The center is being run on an interim basis by

assistant executive director Glenda Crookes.

The case against Israel allegedly centers on the tapes that

captured the wrongful shocks delivered in 2007, said people

familiar with the case.

The center has a policy of monitoring

students’ behavior with help from remote surveillance

cameras. Those monitoring the tapes had the option of

ordering skin-shock treatments via telephone if they

witnessed inappropriate actions, even hours after they

occurred.

Based on the phone call, staffers woke up Dumas’s son and

he was given 77 skin-shock treatments over three hours while

being restrained on a flat surface. Another teenager was

given about two dozen shocks.

The center acknowledged mistakes made by staff that night,

and vowed to change many of its policies, particularly the

issuance of shock treatment orders via telephone.

Dumas said his son remained at the Rotenberg center for

another year, but was moved to a different group home and

taken off the skin-shock treatments. He said his son, now

22, is now living on his own and working two jobs.

Dumas said he was told by the attorney general’s office to

keep secret the news of Israel’s criminal charges, but he

wanted to speak out when approached yesterday by the Globe

about the case. “I don’t want to do anything to protect

Israel,’’ he said.

Wen can be reached at wen@....

McGrory can be reached at mcgrory@....

© Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.

[Guest guest]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/05/25/rotenberg_founder_set_to_face_charges/

Rotenberg founder set to face charges

Expected to quit over ’07 shock case

The founder of the controversial Judge Rotenberg

Educational Center is scheduled to face criminal charges in

Dedham today arising from a night in 2007 when two special

needs teenagers at the center were wrongfully administered

dozens of electrical shocks, according to the father of one

of the victims and another person with knowledge about the

case.

In a deal reached with the state attorney general’s office,

Israel, 77, is expected to be spared prison time in

return for stepping down from the Canton-based center that

he founded 40 years ago and accepting a five-year

probationary term, said Dumas, the father of one of

the two victims in the 2007 case who said he spoke yesterday

with prosecutors. As part of the agreement, the school’s

day-to-day activities will also be overseen by a

court-approved monitor.

A court official who works at the Norfolk County Superior

Court said that today’s schedule of cases lists a defendant

named Israel facing two charges, misleading a grand

jury and accessory after the fact to a crime.

The charges against Israel are believed to be related to

the destruction of some of the center’s digital surveillance

tapes that would have showed what occurred the night of Aug.

26, 2007, in one of the center’s residential group homes in

Stoughton. That night, staffers received a prank phone call

from someone posing as a supervisor, saying two teenagers,

including Dumas’s son, should be administered electrical

shocks as punishment for bad behavior earlier that day.

The attorney general’s office declined comment on the case

yesterday, as did Ernest Corrigan, a longtime spokesman for

Israel and the center. On May 2, Corrigan had issued a press

release announcing Israel’s retirement, effective June 1. In

the release, which made no mention of a pending criminal

case, Israel is quoted as saying, “I am now almost 78 years

old, and it is time for me to move over and let others take

the reins.’’

The case marks a dramatic turn in the career of the

Harvard-trained psychologist, though it does not appear to

end the center’s unorthodox practices that have generated

national controversy: the use of skin-shock treatments to

discipline behaviorally troubled children.

His tactics have been condemned as barbaric and savage by

many top medical and mental health professionals. But

despite some injuries and even deaths at the facility, the

center has continued to get state approval to operate as a

special-needs school serving some 200 students with serious

emotional and behavioral problems, including autism and

intellectual disabilities.

Its most effective backers have been the parents of some of

these troubled students who say Israel’s center accepted

their child when no other school would. Israel has said his

methods work and have virtually eliminated the use of

psychotropic drugs at his center.

In the press release announcing Israel’s departure earlier

this month, one of the center’s board members, Margaret

Vaughan, a retired professor of psychology at Salem State

University, described Israel as a “heroic figure’’ to

thousands of families. She said he helped the families who

saw the center as “their last thread of hope’’ for their

children.

The center has launched a national search for a successor

to Israel. The center is being run on an interim basis by

assistant executive director Glenda Crookes.

The case against Israel allegedly centers on the tapes that

captured the wrongful shocks delivered in 2007, said people

familiar with the case.

The center has a policy of monitoring

students’ behavior with help from remote surveillance

cameras. Those monitoring the tapes had the option of

ordering skin-shock treatments via telephone if they

witnessed inappropriate actions, even hours after they

occurred.

Based on the phone call, staffers woke up Dumas’s son and

he was given 77 skin-shock treatments over three hours while

being restrained on a flat surface. Another teenager was

given about two dozen shocks.

The center acknowledged mistakes made by staff that night,

and vowed to change many of its policies, particularly the

issuance of shock treatment orders via telephone.

Dumas said his son remained at the Rotenberg center for

another year, but was moved to a different group home and

taken off the skin-shock treatments. He said his son, now

22, is now living on his own and working two jobs.

Dumas said he was told by the attorney general’s office to

keep secret the news of Israel’s criminal charges, but he

wanted to speak out when approached yesterday by the Globe

about the case. “I don’t want to do anything to protect

Israel,’’ he said.

Wen can be reached at wen@....

McGrory can be reached at mcgrory@....

© Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.

[Guest guest]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/05/25/rotenberg_founder_set_to_face_charges/

Rotenberg founder set to face charges

Expected to quit over ’07 shock case

The founder of the controversial Judge Rotenberg

Educational Center is scheduled to face criminal charges in

Dedham today arising from a night in 2007 when two special

needs teenagers at the center were wrongfully administered

dozens of electrical shocks, according to the father of one

of the victims and another person with knowledge about the

case.

In a deal reached with the state attorney general’s office,

Israel, 77, is expected to be spared prison time in

return for stepping down from the Canton-based center that

he founded 40 years ago and accepting a five-year

probationary term, said Dumas, the father of one of

the two victims in the 2007 case who said he spoke yesterday

with prosecutors. As part of the agreement, the school’s

day-to-day activities will also be overseen by a

court-approved monitor.

A court official who works at the Norfolk County Superior

Court said that today’s schedule of cases lists a defendant

named Israel facing two charges, misleading a grand

jury and accessory after the fact to a crime.

The charges against Israel are believed to be related to

the destruction of some of the center’s digital surveillance

tapes that would have showed what occurred the night of Aug.

26, 2007, in one of the center’s residential group homes in

Stoughton. That night, staffers received a prank phone call

from someone posing as a supervisor, saying two teenagers,

including Dumas’s son, should be administered electrical

shocks as punishment for bad behavior earlier that day.

The attorney general’s office declined comment on the case

yesterday, as did Ernest Corrigan, a longtime spokesman for

Israel and the center. On May 2, Corrigan had issued a press

release announcing Israel’s retirement, effective June 1. In

the release, which made no mention of a pending criminal

case, Israel is quoted as saying, “I am now almost 78 years

old, and it is time for me to move over and let others take

the reins.’’

The case marks a dramatic turn in the career of the

Harvard-trained psychologist, though it does not appear to

end the center’s unorthodox practices that have generated

national controversy: the use of skin-shock treatments to

discipline behaviorally troubled children.

His tactics have been condemned as barbaric and savage by

many top medical and mental health professionals. But

despite some injuries and even deaths at the facility, the

center has continued to get state approval to operate as a

special-needs school serving some 200 students with serious

emotional and behavioral problems, including autism and

intellectual disabilities.

Its most effective backers have been the parents of some of

these troubled students who say Israel’s center accepted

their child when no other school would. Israel has said his

methods work and have virtually eliminated the use of

psychotropic drugs at his center.

In the press release announcing Israel’s departure earlier

this month, one of the center’s board members, Margaret

Vaughan, a retired professor of psychology at Salem State

University, described Israel as a “heroic figure’’ to

thousands of families. She said he helped the families who

saw the center as “their last thread of hope’’ for their

children.

The center has launched a national search for a successor

to Israel. The center is being run on an interim basis by

assistant executive director Glenda Crookes.

The case against Israel allegedly centers on the tapes that

captured the wrongful shocks delivered in 2007, said people

familiar with the case.

The center has a policy of monitoring

students’ behavior with help from remote surveillance

cameras. Those monitoring the tapes had the option of

ordering skin-shock treatments via telephone if they

witnessed inappropriate actions, even hours after they

occurred.

Based on the phone call, staffers woke up Dumas’s son and

he was given 77 skin-shock treatments over three hours while

being restrained on a flat surface. Another teenager was

given about two dozen shocks.

The center acknowledged mistakes made by staff that night,

and vowed to change many of its policies, particularly the

issuance of shock treatment orders via telephone.

Dumas said his son remained at the Rotenberg center for

another year, but was moved to a different group home and

taken off the skin-shock treatments. He said his son, now

22, is now living on his own and working two jobs.

Dumas said he was told by the attorney general’s office to

keep secret the news of Israel’s criminal charges, but he

wanted to speak out when approached yesterday by the Globe

about the case. “I don’t want to do anything to protect

Israel,’’ he said.

Wen can be reached at wen@....

McGrory can be reached at mcgrory@....

© Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.