EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part two of a two-part series sharing the story of Corinne Sellers, a vulnerable adult who sustained severe injuries at a recent group home. Part one , detailing an incident that led to a criminal neglect charge of an employee at Corinne’s home, appeared in the Sept. 12 edition of the People’s Press.
After bringing their 32-year-old daughter, Corinne, to the Owatonna Hospital with unknown wounds on her head, Joe and Deanna Sellers were quickly informed their vulnerable child had sustained second degree burns .
The non-verbal adult, who is described by her parents as having the mindset and dexterity of a toddler, was immediately transferred to the Regions Burn Unit in St. Paul to tend to the burns. Meanwhile, an investigation at her group home — Fourth Avenue Group Homes in Owatonna — began.
Local police found evidence of neglect, though questions on how the woman who cannot turn on a faucet and is under constant supervision could burn herself remain unanswered.
A staff member at the home, 18-year-old Mursal Abdinasir Aden, of Owatonna, has since been charged with a gross misdemeanor for criminal neglect, with a jury trial scheduled to begin Nov. 6.
But the Sellerses don’t believe that is enough. They want to not only get Corinne justice, but to ensure similar treatment no longer continues in the group home setting across the state.
Corinne had been at Fourth Avenue since June 2023, following a turbulent change in homes, as the Sellerses said the workforce shortage started to drastically impact her first facility. Looking back now, the couple say there has been a number of “red flags,” not only in Fourth Avenue, but in all of the facilities, all of which are private businesses licensed as home management services in the state of Minnesota. All their experiences have them questioning the overall system and how homes and providers get licensed, held accountable and audited.
From 2019-2022 in Steele County, a total of 884 reports — more than 200 per year — of suspected abuse, neglect or financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult were reported to the Minnesota Adult Abuse Reporting Center. A total of 1,193 different allegations were among those reports.
Of those reports, 212 of them — or 24% — were accepted for investigation and services by County Adult Protective Services, Department of Human Services (DHS) Licensing and the Minnesota Department of Health.
Across the state during the same timeframe, 224,186 reports — more than 50,000 per year — were received with a total of 299,649 allegations. Each year, only 25% or less were accepted for investigation and services.
The agency responsible reviews every report to make decisions on how to respond to the report and protect the vulnerable adult, and has five business days to decide if there will be an investigation. Minnesota law allows agencies to use their own guidelines to decide which reports require investigation. County APS agencies use a standardized tool, provided by DHS, and their own guidelines to decide and initiate a response immediately if there is a need for emergency adult protective services.
Of the reports that qualified for a full investigation in Steele County, less than six cases per allegation category were found to be true, but only a handful more cases were found to be false. The rest were found to be inconclusive or have no determination.
Representatives with DHS did not return request for comment.
Red flags
After 11 years in her first home, Deanna Sellers said they started to see “a lot of changes in staff,” which was concerning, as Corinne’s non-verbal nature meant new staff would have to learn her other cues and mannerisms. The couple started bringing some other concerns to the new staff, a big one being how often they would find Corinne’s door shut.
“She doesn’t have the dexterity to use most door knobs, but the providers claimed residents must have the right to be able to lock their door for privacy,” Joe said. “For most residents, that makes sense, but in this case, we have someone who doesn’t have the capacity or know how to open or unlock their door, and that becomes a safety concern. We finally had to turn around the scenario and say that we feel she wants her door open, and if she wants to close it, she can close it.”
Aside from the turnover, the Sellerses said they felt the staff “didn’t seem to care” following an ongoing conflict with another resident who showed aggressive behaviors toward their daughter, finding Corinne with bruises and scratches “no one could explain” when they would visit her.
“We were vocalizing these concerns with the group home staff and provider, trying to get them to work with us to adjust staffing patterns or maybe look at moving people to different rooms in the home — we were open to whatever could be done. We were just trying to advocate for something that could ensure our daughter’s safety,” Joe Sellers said. “At that point we thought we were making progress, and then we received a termination of services letter in the mail. It felt like the squeaky wheel got kicked off the bus instead of getting the grease.”
“There is a very fine line parents and guardians feel they have to walk on how much they bring forward and feel confident they will still have a placement, not knowing when that one thing will end their contract,” Deanna added.
Problems continue
It was 2019, and they had one month to find a new home. According to the Sellerses, it is near impossible to find openings in general at these types of facilities, let alone one that would give them the comfort that their daughter would be well taken care of.
The DHS and Corinne’s caseworker stepped in to work out an agreement that would allow her to stay in the home until she found a new place, which took about six months of touring throughout southern Minnesota.
They found a new home in Owatonna for Corinne where she was the first and only resident for the first six months. The Sellerses said everything was great to start, with an engaging program director and stable staffing.
Out of nowhere, though, they said the program director “just disappeared” with no communication to the families about their departure. Following that, they said there was no “real leadership” on site or any local representation, and everything continued to “go down hill” with progressively worse and worse staffing turnover and a lack of cross training.
“It’s very concerning and disheartening when you never know who is going to be there taking care of your child,” Joe said. “It’s worrisome. No one is there long enough to pass on important information, and before you know it, all the knowledge on how to care for your child goes out the window.”
While at that home, Joe said they learned of an internal investigation of a house lead who was reported by a new staff member for using a closed hand on Corinne, as well as grabbing and dragging her to move her forcibly. He said the company reached out right away and that staff member would no longer work at that house.
“Not that they would be fired,” Joe said, pointing out the company owned several homes in the area. “Just that they would be removed from the home. Pending the result of the investigation, they may still end up working for the company.”
During the investigation at Fourth Avenue, it was revealed by police Aden had claimed weeks prior to the incident that Corinne had locked herself in her room one night and he could not find the key. Krisann Harrington, the director of the Owatonna home, reportedly told police that not only should Aden have the key on him at all times, but that in her experience Corinne does not have the fine motor skills to pinch a lock and turn it.
Brenda Strich, the administrator for Fourth Avenue Homes, said HIPAA and other privacy laws prevent the company from discussing information on their consumer/resident processes. Furthermore, she said an attorney representing the Sellers family has provided Fourth Avenue Homes with a notice of claim, and therefore they cannot discuss matters regarding a pending legal case.
Dan McIntosh, an attorney with Restovich Braun & Associates who is representing the Sellers family, confirmed the notice provided to the adult foster care company.
“The Sellerses are very concerned about both the specific acts that happened and the employer’s role in keeping Mr. Aden employed despite serious red flags about his behavior,” McIntosh said. “We are continuing to gather information with an eye toward asserting some civil claims on Corinne’s behalf as a part of that process.”
The Sellerses were made aware of this incident as well, but only when they had visited Corinne a few days later to find her door was broken open.
“None of this was reported to the county, to DHS or to us,” Joe said. “The only reason we found out about it was because we came to the house a few days later. Leadership knew, and this just showed a pattern of things not being reported.”
Joe said they also learned Aden worked for another company at the same time he was being investigated at Fourth Avenue, but no one would tell the couple if the other company had been informed of the incident with Corinne.
“How did he continue to work after the charge, or when there was an investigation,” Deanna said. “An injury of this nature happened while she was in his care. That just seems wrong. I’m not saying you have to fire people, but you shouldn’t be allowed to be working unsupervised with other vulnerable adults when there is an active investigation.”
“The DHS, if nobody else, should be able to say something,” she continued. “You’re putting other people’s well being at stake by not.”
A path forward
Corinne is now living at a group home in Bloomington, the furthest from her parents she has ever been. Joe said it’s been hard, especially after all that has happened, to trust people to care for her. Deanna said she is thankful that there doesn’t seem to be a lasting impact on her daughter, that she still has her same loving and trusting nature as she always had.
And if there is a silver lining, however difficult it may be to find one, it is to share Corinne’s story and prevent further abuse or neglect to happen due to poor training or a lack of oversight from the state. Joe said they have since learned from a DHS representative that companies can hire staff on an interim basis as the background checks are being processed, and regardless of any legal disqualifier that may be flagged when the check is complete, employers can still keep them on staff. She said there is no mechanism to verify an individual with a bad background check isn’t hired on, and no audit to follow up on it.
“If there is an issue, they only audit a percentage of staff at the house and the company, and that percentage might be just fine,” Deanna said. “These people are caring for people who can’t care for themselves, and it has been very eye-opening to us that lack of oversight … It is time to see it change.”
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