Lawsuit: Mattituck father alleges son was abused at Smithtown group home
A Suffolk County father is suing a local group home, alleging that his teen son with autism was abused.
News 12 Staff
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Aug 3, 2021, 9:44 PM
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Updated 996 days ago
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5h agoA Suffolk County father is suing a local
group home, alleging that his teen son with autism was abused.
Michael Schuch, of Mattituck, says his 19-year-old son Michael Jr. has autism,
is nonverbal and requires 24-hour care.
The teen lives at the Developmental
Disabilities Institute in Smithtown.
Schuch says he
went to visit his then-17-year-old son for lunch at DDI last year and saw that
Michael Jr. had cuts and scratches all over his arms.
"It was getting to me, irking me. He's nonverbal as you can tell, he can't
say anything but ‘Let's go Mets,' and 'I want a
grilled cheese,’” says Schuch.
The father says he filed a complaint with the group home and received a
response six months later. Schuch tells News 12 the institute told him they
found security camera footage of several staff members and his son.
“One staff member was pouring water over his head
as water torture to make him stop doing things like asking for food, basically
for behavior modification,” says
Schuch. "Sometimes I'll go to bed and literally almost to tears thinking
about my boy."
Schuch says soon after this, DDI stopped answering his questions, which
prompted him to hire a lawyer to sue the institute and find out who allegedly
mistreated his son.
Schuch’s lawyer Brad Gerstman says,
"Apparently the person who put the scratches into Michael Jr. is not the
same person who waterboarded Michael Jr. So now you have two individuals in the
home, of which we don't know who they are.”
The CEO of DDI declined to go on camera, but issued a statement responding to
the allegations against the institute, saying in part, "We are pleased
that the Schuch family continues to entrust the care of their son to DDI… DDI has been transparent and cooperative to
ensure any claim is fully investigated and appropriately addressed."
Schuch says his son is still living at DDI while he searches for a new home to
help him.
The Mattituck man hopes his lawsuit will shine a light on any more possible
cases of mistreatment at the group home. His lawyers say they've also contacted
the police.
