Countywide : Orangewood Auditor Plans to Share Findings

After months of delays, a psychiatrist investigating allegations that abused and neglected children may have been improperly medicated at the Orangewood Children’s Home told the county this week that she plans to turn over the conclusions of her inquiry.

But county officials continued to question whether they will actually receive the report, noting that the psychiatrist, Melinda Young of Torrance, has promised and then failed to deliver her findings in the past.

Young was hired seven months ago to lead two other health-care professionals in a probe of the county-run home. This summer, she told the county that she feared a defamation lawsuit over the report. Officials assured her that she would not be held legally accountable.

On Monday, Young left a message for a county official saying that her portion of the audit would be sent to the county after its authors reviewed it. But she didn’t say when she planned to release the report, county mental health director Timothy P. Mullins said.

The delays have prompted Supervisor William G. Steiner to call for the selection of a new auditor to replace Young.

Steiner called for the audit last November after a former county mental health department employee complained that one psychiatrist at Orangewood prescribed adult drugs to children and perhaps used youngsters in pharmaceutical experiments.