COLUMBUS — Gov. Bob Taft on Tuesday appointed the members of a task force he created to find new ways to prosecute and punish those who abuse and neglect the mentally retarded.

        The 18-member task force, which includes prosecutors, judges and other county officials, was formed after reports in The Cincinnati Enquirer and Dayton Daily News found problems in the treatment of 63,000 mentally retarded adults in the state's care.

        Mr. Taft earlier named Lorain County Prosecutor Greg White as chairman of the panel.

TASK FORCE

Gov. Bob Taft previously named Lorain County Prosecutor Gregory White chairman. Other members are:    • Margaret Calvey, victim representative (Lorain County).    • Charles Cleveland, investigator, county board of MRDD (Lucas County).    • David E. Dohnal, president, county board of MRDD (Summit County).     • Dr. Thomas R. Freytag, coroner (Auglaize County).     • Denise Kissel, family representative (Summit County).     • Cindy Reagan Kuhr, victim representative (Greene County).     • Jeff Liston, criminal defense attorney (Franklin County).     • Judge Stephen D. Michael, Probate and Juvenile Division (Jackson County).     • Dr. Carl L. Parrott Jr., coroner (Hamilton County).     • Cheryl Phipps, superintendent, county board of MRDD (Hamilton County).     • Judge Stephen W. Powell, 12th District Court of Appeals (Butler County).     • C. Keith Plummer, prosecutor (Guernsey County).     • Stephen J. Ring, assistant prosecutor (Montgomery County).     • Judge Lisa L. Sadler, Court of Common Pleas (Franklin County).     • Monique Shafer, police officer (Franklin County).     • Diane Weaver, Attorney General's Office (Franklin County).

        Among the appointees are Cheryl Phipps, superintendent of the Hamilton County Board of Mental Retardation, Hamilton County Coroner Carl Parrott Jr. and Stephen W. Powell, a Butler County judge in Ohio's 12th District Court of Appeals.

        Ms. Phipps said she will push for a new state law that would let county mental-retardation boards immediately remove mentally retarded people from abusive and dangerous situations. She said board officials must try to work through probate courts and she said that could take too much time.

        “I also want to see extensive training for police, prosecutors and judges in MRDD matters,” Ms. Phipps said.

        That view was echoed by Columbus Police Detective Monique Shafer, the only officer in any of Ohio's six major cities solely assigned to cases involving mentally retarded victims. Ms. Shafer said she mostly had to train herself how to do her job.

        Ms. Shafer said she will promote a new law that would punish care workers who leave mentally retarded adults in dangerous situations. The law would be patterned after a state law that brings misdemeanor charges to parents caught leaving their children unattended for hours.

        She said the law would include putting a mentally retarded person at risk. The task force appointments come two days after an Enquirer investigation showed abuse and neglect of the mentally retarded often goes unpunished in Ohio.

        The newspaper found 18 state workers accused of harming residents in Ohio's 12 institutions were paid more than $150,000 to leave their jobs over the past five years.

        State officials said they had little choice but to pay the workers because arrests are rare and convictions even more difficult to win.

        Police officers blame a general unwillingness of prosecutors to take on cases involving mentally retarded victims. Sunday's stories on law enforcement problems were the second part of a continuing series on the state's problem plagued mental retardation system.

        On Feb. 3, The Enquirer found abuse and neglect are common at all levels of the state system, identified 12 mentally retarded people who died under questionable circumstances and reported that 80 to 120 people die avoidable deaths each year.
       

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