Flash player is required to view weather conditions. Download

site web  

FAIRFIELD — The state has revoked the license of a Fairfield facility for the mentally disabled where a former resident is accused of strangling his roommate to death last year.

Since the incident in February 2006, the Fairfield Center on Kolb Drive and its operators have been under investigation by the Ohio Department of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities. That state office sent a letter of revocation Monday to Alexson Holdings, Inc., which leases the building from the Butler County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities and contracts with another firm, Viaquest, to manage the 119-bed facility.

"The licensee has demonstrated a pattern of serious noncompliance over a number of years," Ohio MRDD Department Director John L. Martin said. "We cannot continue to risk the health and safety of the residents by allowing this culture of poor care and lax oversight to continue."

Including the current suspension on admissions, the state department said in a press release that it has suspended admissions to the facility four times since 2001, "far more than any other MRDD-licensed home."

Martin plans to meet with residents and families at 7 p.m. April 10 to discuss the state's short-term and long-term plans for the center.

On Feb. 21, 2006, six days after arriving at center, Edward "Teddy" Shuman was accused of strangling roommate Joseph "JoJo" Beaudoin. Shuman was found incompetent to stand trial. He's been committed to the Columbus Developmental Center since March 2006 and will likely stay there until at least July 2008 when his case is set for mandatory review, according to his attorney, Mark Hardig.

Alexson Holdings has 30 days to request an appeal hearing, according to the state Department of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities. If, after the hearing, the revocation is upheld, the state could keep the facility open under a different operator.

The 116 residents of the Fairfield Center will not be moved, according to the county MRDD board.