Judge: Owners of Love Havens Not Abusive

In revoking the licenses of two El Toro board and care homes for the elderly, an administrative law judge characterized the owners as overzealous state licensees who took on more work than they could handle and violated technical regulations more than residents’ rights.

Ingrid Henshall, the owner of Love Haven I on Bark Street, and her son and daughter-in-law, Mike and Karen Cabael, who own Love Haven II across the street, had been accused by the state of brutality, neglect and mismanagement when the facilities were shut down temporarily in April, pending the result of hearings held in June. They have been closed ever since.

Administrative Judge John A. Willd recommended last Wednesday that both licenses be revoked. The California Department of Social Services, the state licensing division, accepted the recommendation the same day.

No Signs of Injury

Willd, in a lengthy decision that arrived in Orange County on Monday from Sacramento, wrote of Henshall: “While (she) was intimidating toward residents and while she did go beyond the proper bounds in her efforts to control their actions, it does not appear that (she) ever inflicted any injury or substantial discomfort upon any of the residents.”

He also said that “it would be a serious error to consider her to be a person capable of any mindless cruelty. In her way, Ingrid Henshall is certainly a caring individual.”

Of the Cabaels, he wrote that he found “certainly no continuing course of abusive treatment, and their problems with residents developed in large measure because residents were retained beyond the time that they were really suitable for (the) facility. As these residents became more bizarre in their behavior, the (Cabaels) would take some action to restrain the residents, who were becoming somewhat of a risk to themselves and to others.”

During the nine days of hearings in June to decide what to do with the Love Havens, Mike Cabael admitted to handcuffing one resident to her bed at night and occasionally to her wheelchair and a rail in the facility’s living room. But the handcuffing was only a last resort after the resident had become violent toward himself and staff members, he contended.

Findings Were Expected

The judge’s findings were in line with what the owners’ attorney, Steven B. Fishman, was expecting and close to what he was trying to prove, he said.

Given those findings, he said, the severity of the punishment was a shock.

Fishman said Willd seemed to have no middle ground between doing nothing and “yanking the licenses.” Willd could have recommended that the Love Havens be allowed to reopen, but under some kind of probation and supervision.

Fishman said he will meet with his clients today to discuss an appeal for an Orange County Superior Court review of the findings to show that “the recommendation, despite the findings of fact, was an abuse of discretion.”

In the decision, Willd said he hoped the Love Haven owners “will once again be licensed by the Department (of Social Services), but they must first demonstrate that they are fully qualified to hold that privilege.”

Henshall and the Cabaels can reapply for new licenses in two years.