Cops: Group home residents lived in filth

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif., Sept. 6 (UPI) -- Residents at an unlicensed group home in San Bernardino, Calif., were forced to live amid squalor and filth and were abused by staff members, officials allege.

City officials said the 22 elderly and mentally ill people living at the facility were fenced in by razor wire, lived in converted chicken coops, had no plumbing and were forced to use buckets for toilets, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.

Group home owner Pensri Sophar Dalton, 61, was arrested last week and charged with 16 felony counts of suspected elder abuse, and San Bernardino City Attorney James Penman indicated local and state agencies will be investigating the case. The Times said a staff member refused to comment on the charges, one day after a group home worker doused reporters with a hose.

"This is probably the tip of the iceberg," Penman told the newspaper. "San Bernardino has a good deal of cheap housing, and people who are unscrupulous have bought a fair amount of those houses and turned them into these facilities, and we come across them by accident. This is among the worst I've seen, but I have seen worse."

The Times said records indicate Dalton has 13 different addresses.