As the disabled woman yelled for them to stop, staff members of a now closed down company sat on her, held her down and hit her, court documents say.
Now, five staff members of Safe Journey, a company that provided services to disabled adults, have been charged with crimes. And the state ordered the company shut down.
More details of what led to that decision by the state are disclosed in court records, police reports and a letter to the company from the state.
According to those documents, video shows owner Amelia Hagedorn and three other staff members holding down and hitting a disabled woman, while another worker watches.
Hagedorn, 50, Indianapolis, has been charged with two felonies — criminal confinement and battery resulting in injury to a disabled person.
Three other staff members — Sharita Bell, Danielle Moore and Carmele Journey-Starks, are facing the same charges. And another worker, Sara Clancy, is facing a misdemeanor charge of failure to report victimization, according to charging documents from the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office.
The charges stem from an incident last month at Safe Journey’s day program, located in the 7400 block of Madison Avenue on the southside, according to the charging documents.
A disabled woman who received services from Safe Journey was upset with discipline she had received for an incident that happened at the home where she lives with other clients of Safe Journey. The client threw a ball at Hagedorn, and Hagedorn began hitting the disabled woman in the face and head with the ball, according to the report.
Two other staff members held the woman down, and when the woman’s shoe came off, Hagedorn hit the woman in the face with it. Bell, who was described as the house manager, sat on the woman, held her down and slapped her and then put a shirt and her hand over the woman’s mouth to stop her from yelling. Hagedorn, Moore and Journey-Starks stood on the woman’s legs to hold her down, the report said. At one point, Journey-Starks dragged the woman by her legs into another area of the room, the report said.
The woman begged the staff members to get off her, and told them she couldn’t breathe. In response, the workers told her she smelled, and that her own mother doesn’t love her, the report said.
The woman’s mother took photos of her daughter’s bruises after the incident.
A few days later, the woman was moved from Safe Journey’s care, and the night before, the woman stayed at Hagedorn’s mother’s house to give her gifts and influence her not to report what happened, the report said.
The incident was recorded and reported to the Indiana Department of Child Services, which investigated, including talking to staff, clients and the victim — who all verified what happened, the report said.
Hagedorn was arrested at her Indianapolis home on Monday night.
