Licenses Revoked for El Toro Homes Accused of Abusing Elderly Patients

The California Department of Social Services has revoked the licenses of two El Toro board and care homes for the elderly that had been accused of mismanagement, abuse and neglect of residents.

After a 30-day review of evidence and testimony from hearings in which there were allegations of handcuffings, coercion, beatings and forced feedings, Administrative Law Judge John A. Willd recommended revoking the licenses for Love Havens I and II on Wednesday. The social services agency’s Community Care Licensing Board accepted the recommendation the same day, the department’s spokeswoman, Kathleen Norris, said Thursday.

The homes on Bark Street, each of which could accommodate up to six residents, have been closed by state order since April 6.

Nine days of hearings were held in June.

Love Haven I owner Ingrid Henshall reacted emotionally when told of the state’s action: “There’s nothing I can do now. I have a third-grade education. The only gift God gave me was the gift of caring for the elderly.”

Henshall and her son and daughter-in-law, Mike and Karen Cabael, may apply for a new license in two years, Social Services staff attorney Paula Mazusky said. The Cabaels are joint owners of Love Haven II.

Mazusky would not elaborate or comment further on the decision until Henshall and the Cabaels have seen the lengthy recommendation by the administrative law judge.

Love Haven attorney Steven B. Fishman said he would file an appeal with the Orange County Superior Court within the next 30 days but would not comment on the decision until he had seen it.

A tearful Henshall called the decision “devastating” and part of a “vendetta” by Social Services.

Henshall, 52, said she immigrated to the United States in 1956 from West Germany, where she had had gone after World War II when she left her native Poland.

“It is disgusting that you have to go through this in a free country when you’ve done nothing but give love,” she said of her 10 years running Love Haven I. “The United States doesn’t have enough money to pay me back for what state licensing has done to me.”

Love Haven II co-owner Mike Cabael reacted more stoically, saying that once he heard that Social Services would make the final decision, he knew his license would be revoked. He called the hearings “a waste of time.”

During the nine days of hearings, four former Love Haven employees testified that Henshall had beaten a resident with a shoe and dragged another resident into a bathroom, slapping her and pulling her hair. Testimony alleged that Henshall routinely abused residents verbally, force-fed one resident and took food away from another when she saw the resident giving some of it to household pets. Residents were also reportedly forced to sleep on soiled sheets.

Former employees testified that the Cabaels handcuffed one patient to her bed, smoked marijuana on the premises and kept a handgun within reach of the residents. Social Services also maintained that both homes kept more residents than their licenses allowed and kept one resident who was too ill for board and care facilities.

The Love Havens also failed to maintain adequate death reports and fire safety standards, the state alleged.

Henshall and the Cabaels had denied the charges, contending that their inexperienced employees were misinterpreting legitimate therapy and medical techniques. Mike Cabael insisted that the handcuffs were used only as a last resort to keep a patient with Alzheimer’s disease from hurting herself and others and that the gun was always kept securely locked away.

Defense attorney Fishman tried to portray those former employees as disgruntled because all but one had been fired by Mike Cabael for what he called inadequate performances. Fishman said he had hoped that the judge would view the licensing breaches--such as the use of behavioral restraints, which are not allowed for board and care homes, and the maintainance of the patient who Social Services declared was too ill for the facilities--as insufficient to revoke the licenses.

Henshall said Thursday that the preceedings have “destroyed” her family and her health. She said that she had lost 14 pounds and developed a bleeding ulcer from the stress and that her daughter has been hospitalized.

Mike Cabael, she said, got a job making golf clubs in Santa Ana after having difficulty finding work because of press reports about the hearings. He is “barely holding his head above water,” she said.

Mike Cabael said he has had offers to care for the elderly privately, but he does not know whether he will accept them or whether he will apply for a new license.

“I have been really hurt by this,” he said. “It’s going to take a while to get over it.”