'A house of horrors:' Protest held after cellphone video shows a Milwaukee caregiver allegedly hit an autistic, nonverbal man
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- After a recent cellphone video caught a Milwaukee caregiver making some kind of violent and physical contact with one of their clients, the family of the alleged victim and concerned neighbors are speaking out.
On Saturday, a group filled the streets outside of the Helping Hands group home on S. Sunset Dr., holding signs and chanting in protest of the home and in support of the people it serves.
"Justice for Steven! Justice for Steven!" they chanted repeatedly.
Steven, is the 31-year-old man in the video, identified by family.
In the video, you can see Steven fall to the ground and pick himself up.
Once he's standing again, you can audibly hear a loud, sharp sound, before Steven begins shrieking and the video taker and the caregiver start swearing and yelling back and forth.
#EXCLUSIVE: Cellphone video showing a man, identified by family as 31yo Steven who is “severely autistic & nonverbal,” allegedly being hit by his caregiver outside his group home in #Milwaukee. The protest today + legal action family is taking on @CBS58‼️graphic language pic.twitter.com/5IB8WrJBtY
— Ellie Nakamoto-White (@ellienw_news) September 3, 2023
His mother, Kathy Hauglie, tells CBS 58 her son is "severely autistic and nonverbal" and has been living at the home for three years.
"I just am fed up with it," Hauglie said. "My son does not need to be treated like that."
Hauglie claims this isn't the first time her son has been abused, showing a posterboard with printed photos of rashes, scrapes, bruises, and more.
"Three weeks ago, the neighbor started walking up to me and telling me the things that they witnessed outside being done to my son, he was being knocked down, punched, kicked, slapped," Hauglie said. “They always had an excuse, they said Steven did the bruising and that to himself which you can clearly see Steven didn’t do those bruises to himself.”
When asked if she had tried to place Steven in a different home over the years, Hauglie said the family had made multiple attempts.
“It’s hard because we have to get a lot of paperwork to go through for enhanced care rate, we had to find an appropriate group home for him and that’s why it was taking so long," Hauglie said.
On Monday, Aug. 28, Steven was removed and put in another group home with a caretaker Hauglie said was "safe."
But she and others want to bring attention to what they claim happened, as they said this shouldn't have happened in the first place.
CBS 58 also spoke with the person who filmed the incident, who lives across the street from the home.
“They were walking down there, the guy fell down, he got him back up, and then he went like this, and he went whack right in the side of the head," recalled James Reynolds. “You hear that screaming and everything, it sounds like a house of horrors here.”
Reynolds added he has also seen other times Steven was allegedly abused by the caregivers.
"It’s not right you know, for a person under care of a facilities to be neglected and abused," Reynolds said.
The family is planning on taking legal action against the group home, who according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, has several other homes listed in its ownership.
A petition for the home's closure, created by Reynolds, has dozens of signatures.
"I got him out of here," Hauglie said. "I just want to close this group home."
CBS 58 has reached out to the owners of the home and to the Milwaukee Police Department but didn't hear back before airtime.
Stay tuned for updates.