Tenant says San Bernardino group home operator getting a bad rap, investigation continues
By Andrew Edwards
Staff Writer
SAN BERNARDINO -- A man who says he has spent 16 years living at properties operated by the woman who has been arrested on suspicion of abuse at a Golden Avenue group home insists she is actually a generous woman who takes good care of her tenants.
"That woman's got a heart of gold. That woman takes people off the street," said Raymond Pyatt, 43.
The woman in question is Pensri Sophar Dalton. Dalton was released from custody Saturday, the day after she was arrested on suspicion of abusing tenants at a group home in the 2800 block of North Golden Avenue.
Pyatt, who said he is a former resident of the Golden Avenue home, decried reports of mistreatment at the Golden Avenue home as hearsay. However, San Bernardino city agencies are conducting a criminal investigation of activities at the house.
State authorities are also conducting a probe to determine if the home was managed without proper licensing, said Oscar Ramirez, a spokesman for the licensing branch of the state Department of Social Services.
On Thursday, razor wire still topped the fence outside the home where city officials say mentally ill adults were lived in bird habitats that were initially described as chicken coops.
A woman who answered the phone Thursday said Dalton was not available to comment.
Pyatt said no one was ever forced to live inside the aviaries, but tenants did sometimes use the places as spots to hang out with significant others. He also said the razor wire was installed not to keep residents in, but as a barrier against criminals fleeing police.
He also said Dalton kept tenants - who were typically disabled adults receiving Social Security benefits -- well-supplied with food and that she would often purchase snacks, sodas and cigarettes for the tenants with money from her own pocket.
Pyatt now lives in a Highland group home on Villa Avenue where four other residents also said they were pleased with Dalton's care.
He said he has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia since childhood and that he administers his own medications. He has a tatoo of her last name inked in script on his right wrist.
"She's the only mom I've ever had," Pyatt said.
Also on Thursday, City Attorney James F. Penman said investigators from his office and the state inspected multiple properties connected to Dalton.
Penman also said that in 2004, his office, in cooperation with county officials, helped an individual move into a Dalton-operated home in Highland. He said the placement was at the individual's request following a city-ordered shut down of an apartment and that the location passed inspection at the time.
He said his office is still working to determine if the city had any role in ever placing anyone at the Golden Avenue house.
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See, what did I say, Penman new about Dalton's operation. Penman says above that he helped place Pyatt at one of her homes after Penman had displaced him by demolishing his home. I wonder if Penman ever placed anyone in the Golden Ave. home. What do you say, Jim.
No WAY are you guys going to buy that, right? I mean, the man is seriously mentally ill and I can just see how this went down, too. Are we forgetting that these people are in group homes because they CAN'T decide and care for themselves?! OMG! I feel bad for the man, but I can't excuse the way those residents were treated just because they say it was okay.
gmc...Can you not read? It says the city attorney, in cooperation with county officials, placed this man in a Dalton-operated home in Highland in 2004.
If his apartment was closed by a city order you can bet that it was not up to code, therefore dangerous and probably being used by drug users and pushers.
This man was not kicked out into the streets. At the time the house passed inspection. gmc... Your just trying to blame Penman since this whole thing is exploding in Morris' face.
I also understand that this woman is being sued by the family of a man whose drowned body was found in the unfenced pool of one of this woman's group homes. His body, apparently, was found the following day.
The man saying all those nice things about Dalton must be confused! I say the proof is in the evidence. The evidence, including photo documentation, clearly shows that there were some serious abuses occurring. We have all seen the news clips showing the horrific conditions investigators and health officials found. Do you honestly think they made this up? Now we are just waiting to find out how extensive the abuse.
Adelante con Penman!
Could we be looking at the "stockholm Syndrome" ( sp)?
I lived in a group home as a teenager here in San Bernardino for about a month because I pissed off my social worker and the very day I got there, I was given a list of rules that included not being able to shut the bathroom door all the way when I showered or had to use the bathroom, no friends allowed over & I couldn't talk with any of my friends, I had to quit my job, I was robbed of everything I owned of any value and fed cheap junk food for meals.
Because I said I'd rather not live there and just walked toward the door, I was pounced on by no less than five staff members, including grown men, and beaten within an inch of my life for screaming out in pain so the neighbors heard me. They never took me to the doctor for my injuries and was only released from the home's "care" when I signed an agreement stating that I'd never sue for what happened there and I wouldn't tell anybody. I was told that my friend's parents would only get custody of me if I abided by that agreement.
People in these group homes are afraid to say anything bad about their prior placements because they are often threatened with future bad placements. Before your file is released from anywhere, the staff there and owners get to give a final report on you. It helps determine where to place you next. From foster care to any county care, these people know about this. They fear what could be worse.
This seems very serious. Who is investigating the other homes this woman has
as group homes? I saw a report on KTLA where the reporter said that the new
City Manager was on a vacation in Brazil? Is that correct? Didn’t he just start
working a couple of months ago? This is urgent. Did he really not allow a meeting
between Police, and Code and the City Attorney’s office to not take place until
he returns. I fear that this woman could have other senior citizens or disabled
adults in similar conditions. Does anyone else not have these fears? Doesn’t the
new City Manager have an Assistant City Manager who could get the sit in on
a meeting in his place? This does this not seem like something is being covered
up? Is there something rotten in Denmark?
It's called a cover-up by the Mayor's Office. I think it's time for the Grand Jury to investigate. Certain city departments interfering with a criminal and prosecutorial investigation? This is bad. Someone call the paper and ask why the investigation by the City was stopped by the Mayor and city manager. Andrew Edwards 909-386-3921 and ask for James Koren or Andrew.
So how about it, Andrew? Has the investigation been stopped? I know this one was stopped: http://sanbernardinocity.blogspot.com/
Its rotten in Denmark! County Programs from LA and San Bernardino referred people who couldn't be placed elsewhere, with Sophar. She was the only one that took these people in, when no one else did...She did not operate a "Group Home" nor did she have an unlicensed "Board and Care." What she was doing was perfectly legal! The only rules that she broke were city ordinances/occupancy rules. I hope she sues every last agency she can for the closure of her homes, the slander she has suffered portraying her as moving the chickens out and moving the people in, and the loss of her family members, her adoptees, who would otherwise be living in their own feces under city bridges. This woman did amazing things for people and because her house didn't resemble a house delicately manicured in the Hollywood hills, but rather one actually here in the slums of San Bernardino, pretty nicly kept for one with 22 occupants I might say, doesn't mean these persons were not taken care of. I cant imagine that my home would have green pretty grass if 22 crazy persons were trampling it every day...and the pictures of the buckets that the residents supposedly deficated in! Though some may have used those buckets due to their mental state, they were definately not expected to deficate or urinate in any bucket.
Even hospitals, not just county agencies referred people to Sophar, because they couldn't place a lot of these people. What the county needs to do, is to take lessons from Sophar and start doing something about the problems of the mentally ill and parolee population and get them designated to certain areas so that things like this dont pop up in our family neighbor hoods and ruin communities. Though I have personal knowledge of the operation and am a supporter of what she does, there have been some less desirable effects on neighborhoods. I wouldn't want her in mine.
Insider:
What about the man who drowned in her back yard because she didn't put a fence up & wasn't supervising him? What about the buckets used as toilets?
because of the so called suit against Sophar for the man's death indicated above, I can not comment on that, but what I do know about that, is that each and every one of those people placed there, is a boarder...they pay for room and board. There are no "care takers." They are not placed there "to be taken care of" as in a board and care/nursing home. Though some have illnesses, they are still functunal unless intoxicated. They are free to come and go untill doors lock at 10 p.m. House rules say you cant be intoxicated. The types of people in those homes are there, for someone to be they're payee, so that those people are provided a roof over their heads and food on their table, who would otherwise be homeless and spending their entire check on booze or drugs. She is not responsible for their actions in any way. Like I stated in my earlier post, none of them were expected to deficate or urinate in any bucket! One of her houses has 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms and kept in perfect repair and exceptionally clean.