
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 3, 1994                   TAG: 9404030097
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

D.C. TO PAY $1.075 MILLION IN ABUSE SUIT

The government of the District of Columbia has agreed to settle a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the families of six residents of an institution for the mentally retarded, according to attorneys representing both sides.

Under the settlement agreement, to be made public Monday, the D.C. government, which admits to no wrongdoing, will pay the families a total of $1.075 million.

Federal investigators said the deaths, which are the subject of an article in today's Los Angeles Times Magazine, constituted the worst example of institutional abuse and neglect in recent U.S. history.

The Justice Department's civil rights division had charged that at least nine residents of the now-closed institution, called Forest Haven, died between 1989 and 1990 as a result of substandard medical care after they contracted aspiration pneumonia, which is caused by feeding people while they are lying down.

- Los Angeles Times

by CNB