I wrote about this first thing this morning and am laughing, laughing, laughing. Now we will see if the Chesco DA’s office actually does anything, but people? This is WHY I tell you this election is SO important so we can quell this utter horseshit for a while. Polls are still open so get out and vote.
by Maddie Hanna Published Nov. 7, 2023, 4:07 p.m. ET
A parent group supporting Democratic school board candidates in the West Chester Area School District says cards were handed out Tuesday falsely implying a Republican candidate had the group’s endorsement.
The cards, which Democrats say were handed out at multiple polling places, have Alain Oliver’s name on the front and the phrase “Democrats working together for public schools” on the back. The phrase, color and handshake logo are similar to that used by Together for Public Schools, a parent group in the district that has endorsed the Democrats in the race.
”I was kind of shocked. We all kind of said, ‘This is like cartoon villain material,’” said Laura Patarcity, a parent who was involved in designing Together for Public Schools’ logo. “It’s clearly deceptive, if not outright fraudulent.”
The cards say they were paid for by Back to Basics WC, the PAC supporting Oliver and the other Republican candidates.
“The business cards in question were specifically requested by a volunteer who is a registered Democrat,” said Beth Ann Rosica, Back to Basics WC co-chair. “We purchased the cards for him to use at polling locations near his home. The candidate, Alain Oliver, was not handing out the cards. The purchase and distribution of the cards is compliant with all campaign finance rules.”
Oliver is executive director of the Love and Fidelity Network, an organization that promotes “pro-family and pro-life education and activities on college campuses.”
Ahhh notice a familiar name? BETH ANN ROSICA. Allow me to refresh your memory:
I could go on, but I won’t. It all makes sense now. Stay tuned for what happens when a cranky old man runs a Republican committee in Charlestown….stuff gets out….
It’s like Karma just gave us the biggest gift ever! Chris Bressi, the local politician running for Downingtown Area School School District School Board just got OUTED for being the FAKE people have said all along. I almost spit out my coffee this morning when this hit my inbox.
You see I’m just a little ole’ blogger and someone he called a racist among other things. But while he was going high and we were supposedly going low, you just kept looking at things and nothing added up did it? Only you wonder if the media is ever going to look into some of these Klanned Karenhood , Stepford Wives for Totalitarianism, Moms for Liberty candidates don’t you?
But hey, I have maintained all along that you shouldn’t let people who wear gas masks to school board meetings, pick out your school board candidates and other politicians…
Karma is a god. Yes, thank you Taylor Swift. It is such an amazing thing to have the media even find more than we knew about. I know I had nothing to do with the media placement with this. My phone started blowing up this morning when I turned it on and it really has given me a good giggle…
The first warning from the Society of College Medicine landed in inboxes in June 2021, with the subject line “Violation — Book Red Flagged.”
“It has come to our attention that a ‘Red Flagged’ book has appeared on your DEI Reading List,” the email to Downingtown Area School District administrators and school board members, began, citing White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo….
Several more emails arrived in the coming weeks, warning Downingtown that the society had now issued five “tier-1″ and eight “tier-2″ violations for books it deemed “extremely divisive.” The society said it had given Downingtown’s DEI reading list a “D,” “which is in the bottom tier of all schools we assess globally.”
But the Society for College Medicine is merely a website that appears to be made up by a man who is not a physician but is running for the Downingtown school board.
Christopher Bressi, a Republican backed by the conservative “parental rights” group Moms for Liberty, previously listed the society on his resume andreferenced it in Facebook posts, according to community members who have documented the ties. The society’s website has also mentioned Bressi…..When Bressi announced his candidacy, community members searched online to learn more about him. They found a resume on LinkedIn that mentioned the Society of College Medicine — the first of several connections that would emerge. (The mention has since disappeared from his resume, which also doesn’t use his full name.)…Bressi did not respond to requests for comment, but in a Facebook post in March, he said he had never wanted to run for school board, “which used to be the most trivial position on planet earth,” but “was convinced to after five — yes 5 requests.”
He said in that post that since announcing his run, he had been harassed, bullied and doxed, and that his opponents were afraid that he would “bring rationality back and actually listen to parents.”…Bressi describes himself as a professor — appearing on Moms for Liberty’s endorsement list as “Professor Christopher Bressi” — who began working in the “higher education sector” as a research assistant in 1998….Since those humbler beginnings, I have held various, senior-level positions including Academic Dean, Department Chair, Site Director, Director of Education, and National Director,” he says on his campaign website.
He doesn’t say where he’s worked. But a LinkedIn resume for “Christopher B.” on LinkedIn that uses the same Martin Luther King Jr. quote as his campaign site — “Everybody can be great, because anybody can serve” — lists numerous positions, including “executive director of higher education.”
That position appears to be with Aspect Consulting, an IT consulting company based in King of Prussia; the company did not return a message seeking comment. A former colleague said Bressi’s role when they worked together was connecting education institutions with consultants that could advise them about software.
“The fact that he says he’s the director of higher ed, that’s a service we provide. … But he’s not the service, he’s the go-between,” said the former colleague, who spoke on the condition of anonymity….Bressi’s resume also says he has been an adjunct technology professor with Delaware County Community College for 20 years; a college spokesperson said she could not comment on employment information.
In other roles, Bressi says he worked as a technology professor for ITT Technical Institute, the for-profit education chain that shut down in 2016; and as academic dean for the former Career Education Corp., now Perdoceo, a company that owns for-profit colleges. The company did not respond to a request for comment.
He also says he was a law and justice professor from 2004 to 2006 for Alvernia University, “in the Philadelphia and Exton PA Location(s).” Bressi says that, as “site director and professor” for the PA Institute of Forensic Science, he “worked in conjunction with Alvernia College to expand/open a satellite campus in Exton, PA.”
An Alvernia spokesperson said academic records reflect classes taught by Bressi in 2005, “but we haven’t operated a site in Exton.”…Bressi informed the board that “the largest educational management group on LinkedIn” had “recommended collectively that K-12 schools adopt a no-politics-in-the-classroom pledge” — advising the district to “follow suit.”
Bressi’s use of groups he’s created is “absolutely deceptive,” intended to convey authority, said one parent, who requested anonymity because she’s been secretly tracking right-wing community members online.
She said she worries about the prospect of Moms for Liberty and others gaining influence on the school board: “I don’t want my hometown to end up like Florida.”
This is a huge article, and it is so worth getting a subscription to The Philadelphia Inquirer to read it.
This guy is the George Santos of school board candidates and local politicians.
Thank you to The Philadelphia Inquirer for writing about this. We owe them a debt of gratitude out here in Chester County. And no, I had nothing to do with the article.
Gosh “professor” I guess being passive aggressive towards me all these months is the least of your worries now.
But hey dude, you keep going high up into the ether where your delusions live, while we live in reality.
Between this news and West Goshen today it’s like Christmas came early.
So Danelo Cavalcante, a convicted murderer, is STILL on the loose. Nerves are frayed, everyone is on edge.
I think they need bloodhounds to catch the scent, I have seen only shepherds.
I have friends in the area. One sent me this picture taken near Longwood this afternoon:
I was astounded by the presser today. WHY was Danelo Cavalcante with everyone in an exercise yard with no guards IN the yard, and one lone person in some other security post who didn’t see him crab walk up a wall and slither out the way ANOTHER prisoner escaped in MAY. Oh and THAT prisoner is STILL in Chester County Prison. Don’t these people think prisoners communicate with one and other???
There are so many on the prison board who need to answer questions IMHO. How grossly understaffed, underpaid, and overworked are the people who work there? Is it as bad as the sheriff’s office?
Why wasn’t a convicted murderer waiting for state prison kept somewhere more secure?
If someone escaped recently from that exercise yard why was that yard open with no guards near where the prior escape occurred as a deterrent?
What exactly happened during the tenure of the recently departed warden and HIS predecessor?
Why is the current PA Attorney General seeming to control all of these matters in Chester County including flow of information? Why do we as Chester County residents hear about what the Attorney General is doing but we as residents aren’t hearing from AG Michelle Henry ?
People are not resting comfortably in their own homes all over the area.
Here’s hoping he’s caught soon.
Here’s hoping ALL Chester County officials involved with this prison debacle are held accountable no matter what their position or role in the county.
All we have are questions and no answers and a murderer literally on the loose.
As the hunt for Danelo Cavalcante entered its seventh day Wednesday, Chester County residents who live near the area of the search for the convicted murderer expressed a mixture of wariness and fatigue.
Cavalcante, 34, escaped from the Chester County Prison on Aug. 31 and has been spotted multiple times in wooded areas east of the facility in the intervening days, according to investigators….On Wednesday, the search for the fugitive shifted to an area around the Brandywine Creek in Chadds Ford. It was the second time that law enforcement had moved their perimeter: They moved slightly south on Tuesday, after a trail camera in Longwood Gardens recorded Cavalcante twice within an hour late Monday.
Outside of the post office in Chadds Ford on Wednesday morning, neighbors quickly ferried in and out of their cars as sirens flashed at a nearby checkpoint. Every so often, a helicopter circled overhead.
George Glauner couldn’t help but notice the tense atmosphere as he ran an errand, as the manhunt continued into its seventh day.
Glauner, 77, said he’d stepped outside of his house on Tuesday to find state police parked practically every 50 yards down Parkersville Road.
After learning that Cavalcante may have broken into several homes near the Chester County Prison, Glauner is keeping an extra eye on his back shed, where he believes Cavalcante could potentially hide.
“It’s tense,” Glauner said. “Doors are locked, cars are locked.”
The heavy police presence in the area caused a bit of inconvenience for Joe Delahanty, 40, who was stopped four times by officers on his way to work early Wednesday. During the last stop, on Creek Road, Delahanty said he was asked by a state trooper to open his trunk, as they checked passing cars for Cavalcante.
“This is the first time in nine years that I’ve felt the need to lock my house doors when leaving for work,” said Delahanty, who lives in Birmingham Township….”I understand it’s a heavily wooded area,” Delahanty said, “but between the drones, helicopters, and hundreds of cops, I feel like they should’ve gotten him by now.”
Caroline Sarkis, 53, who lives not far from Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, said the constant barrage of reported sightings of Cavalcante has left her feeling unnerved, unable to get much sleep….Jeanne Jacobson, who lives in the Kendall Crosslands retirement community, recalled Wednesday the constant swirl of police helicopters overhead the prior evening around dinnertime, and, more chillingly, the sound of a prerecorded message blasting through loudspeakers in which Cavalcante’s mother , speaking in Portuguese, urged her son to surrender.
“Last night was the worst,” said Jacobson, 88. “The entire community is locked down.”
This headline caught my eye. Norristown. So shady and in decline it might be the Montgomery County version of Chester in Delaware County. Can we say the love of decades of issues, possibly corruption shows?
I don’t know who this guy is I never heard of him before today (I rarely follow Montgomery County politics these days, and I certainly don’t know much about Norristown, other than its downtrodden), but this is despicable. And can we say this is one hell of a nasty political stunt? And it’s also obvious that he is targeting a woman (Stephanie Sena ) who advocates for homeless people and isn’t that a little disturbing?
And above all else, this guy seems to have an enormous chip on his shoulder about the different sides of Montgomery County. Norristown and Villanova are polar opposites. And the Norristown side of Montgomery County has always historically hated Lower Merion Township. And now this hatred is taking another form and using homeless people like others are using immigrants. I can’t escape the notion that this is more about politics than the actual homeless encampments but who knows?
The homeless population is real in suburbia, and it has been for years. And Norristown is a cesspool of issues and has been for years and it’s the Montgomery County seat. But this guy is essentially talking about treating the homeless population inhumanely, and the fact that this is coming from Norristown doesn’t surprise me in the least.
I can’t decide if Norristown is better or worse under Democrat control. Because it certainly wasn’t better under Republican control. Norristown was once a thriving metropolis, now it’s a place most people want to drive through as quickly as possible. And is that the fault of the homeless people and the homeless people seem like they are like being moved around like pawns on a chessboard? Before I get to today’s article, here’s one from a few days ago:
“They’re moving us around like dirt,” said a resident of one of 20 encampments in the borough. Local, state, and national homeless advocates are gearing up for a fight with municipal officials.
by Alfred Lubrano Updated on May 28, 2023, 5:00 a.m. ET
About 20 homeless encampments in Norristown will be cleared in the coming weeks, with no plans to store people’s confiscated property, according to advocates for individuals living homeless in the borough.
Officially, borough officials have neither confirmed nor denied what advocates call a potential “sweep” of an estimated 160 people living mostly in tents in various parts of the municipality, many in public parks.
A spokesperson for Peco, however, said that individuals living in tents on 3,000 feet of land owned by the utility along the Schuylkill River Trail in Norristown “will need to relocate” at an unspecified time so “hazardous waste and trash” can be removed from the site. Advocates say about 12 people live there.
Homelessness is a fraught issue in Norristown, where residents, advocates, and those experiencing homelessness exist in a tense environment. It plays out in a county of great wealth but few beds for those who sleep outside. These days, when a person who loses a home calls Montgomery County for help, there’s little more advocates can do than issue tents.
Norristown officials have said they’ll time a full-borough sweep to coincide with Peco’s clear-out, according to Stephanie Sena, a homelessness expert and anti-poverty professor at Villanova University’s Charles Widger School of Law. She also runs a homeless shelter in Upper Darby.
Thomas Lepera, Norristown’s president/councilman at-large, was asked multiple times in an interview whether the municipality will be clearing out people living homeless within its borders. He declined to answer, repeating the phrase, “We’ll be cleaning sites of hazardous materials where people are living” in encampments. He acknowledged that the eradication of what he described as “feces, needles, and God-knows-what-else in barrels” will coincide with Peco’s efforts. No date is set.
So this Stephanie Sena spoke out in her capacity as a homeless advocate and now she is being targeted and so is her employer by the head of Norristown Borough Council?
There is an epidemic of homeless in the greater Philadelphia region. But how do you solve the issues when people like these politicians in Montgomery County are ratcheting up the drama? And based on the articles, I’m reading it’s like nobody wants to touch this hot potato and this guy is connected to a lot of interesting people, so are those people being judged by this company they are keeping? Including the newly minted, Democratic candidate for mayor for the City of Philadelphia? And everyone knows that the City of Philadelphia has quite a huge homeless population don’t they?
I’m just kind of appalled and disturbed by this whole thing all the way around. I don’t pretend to have any answers but surely we can all do better instead of acting like we come from Texas and Greg Abbott is our BFF?
And this Hatfields and McCoys thing going on, depending on what side of Montgomery County you are from is beyond old.
I don’t have any answers here, and I certainly don’t have a dog in this fight, but I find these articles disturbing.
Thomas Lepera, the municipality’s president and councilman at-large, allegedly said he wanted to be Norristown’s version of Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott.
By Alfred Lubrano
The head of Norristown’s municipal council said he plans to bus people living homeless in the borough to the Villanova University campus.
Thomas Lepera, the municipality’s president/councilman at-large, said he’ll offer $500 gift cards to everyone who boards the bus at the end of the month. The money would come from donations, Lepera has said. Norristown has no homeless shelter.
Lepera is choosing Villanova because Stephanie Sena, an anti-homelessness advocate and anti-poverty fellow at the university’s Charles Widger School of Law, has been working on behalf of an estimated 160 people experiencing homelessness in Norristown. Sena also runs a homeless shelter in Upper Darby.
Sena said that Lepera called her an “ivory tower elitist” during a brief meeting last week to discuss encampments. The meeting included Eric Tars, legal director of the Washington, D.C.-based National Homelessness Law Center.
Sena said Lepera added, “Just so you know, I’m taking buses and shipping people to Villanova.”
Tars corroborated the account, adding, “Tom told Stephanie he’s ‘going to create a clown show on the Villanova campus by throwing needles and trash’ from Norristown encampments onto the Campus Green.”
Then Lepera ended the meeting by cursing at Sena and making an obscene gesture, both Sena and Tars said.
Asked for comment, a Villanova spokesperson said in a statement, “The work being done by Stephanie Sena is part of her personal advocacy efforts; it is not being done on behalf of, or at the direction of, Villanova University.
“Villanova University has had multiple conversations with Norristown officials to clarify Ms. Sena’s role as being independent of Villanova.”
The university didn’t directly address questions about the busing.
In a brief phone call, Lepera, who is also political director of IBEW Local 98, declined to discuss the busing plan, or how serious he is about it. He denied hurling obscenities at Sena, then he cursed at a reporter and hung up.
“When you have all the social services in one area, it draws in the homeless population. When you have a pandemic and flood [from Hurricane Ida in 2021, which destroyed low-income housing], your homeless population rises. When it rises, you have stuff called encampments.
“When Stephanie reached out as a representative of Villanova, I said, ‘How perfect is this? Because Villanova, with hundreds of millions in revenue, that prides itself on Catholic values and wants to help the poor, has a school now with empty dorm rooms. …“I couldn’t see a more perfect scenario as where to move the homeless encampments.”…
…Lepera’s Facebook page includes a large Villanova logo with the phrase, “Very Much looking forward to the Villanova/Norristown partnership. More News to come shortly.” The post had garnered 131 likes and hearts as of Friday.
It accumulated comments such as, “I hope it includes busses” from Norristown Councilmember Heather Lewis.
In a text, Lewis said, “I may not 100% agree with Mr. Lepera’s plan, but I do 100% share his frustration” about the problem of homelessness that Norristown must shoulder. “Hence,” she added, “drastic times call for drastic measures.”
Giant college party going on in Mt. Pleasant since 1 PM. Kids keep ubering in. Police as per residents have been called at least 5 times, and well here, read the screen shots off of social media:
Tredyffrin Police? Are you so busy you can’t deal with this, or is it you do not want to deal with it? Tredyffrin Supervisors? Do you have a collective pulse?
So Tredyffrin we KNOW you like to pretend Mt. Pleasant doesn’t exist, except when you and Upper Merion approve ridiculous land development that is. And is that development for college student rentals? Seems a little overpriced for that maybe?
I don’t want to say Tredyffrin is prejudiced or biased against some residents, but hey the optics? Sleazy at a minimum here? These people aren’t good enough to care for or something?
These people, as in the people raising kids and living like normal people in Mt. Pleasant have an expectation of quiet enjoyment legally, correct? I don’t think that includes blue tarps to block keg view for the neighbors etc is part of quiet enjoyment?
How about do your damn jobs Tredyffrin? And media? If you are interested in Mt. Pleasant I can hook you up. It is actually in Chester County, PA.
For years, virtually throughout it’s history, Mt. Pleasant is treated poorly, and poorly is a polite descriptive adjective.
Oh here’s a blue tarp party photo from September. Tredyffrin quite a few OUTSIDE of Mt. Pleasant have been keeping tabs. We want better for them. Even if you don’t give a good god damn.
Devereux has a campus on Boot Road in West Whiteland Township. 390 E Boot Road, West Chester, PA 19380 to be precise. If you live in the area you know kids seem to get out, and a lot of the time the same kids, correct? No one wants to talk about this, but it is true, correct? Ask the neighbors around there, right? And then there is a house on Ship Road that is Devereux too, correct? And another one on Boot Road?
So I hear today someone plowed into their fence there today? (That is just a related aside, but doesn’t Devereux act like good fences make good neighbors?)
And the kids who get out of 390 E. Boot Road are sometimes a problem? They are minors so this is hid from publicly available court items but occasionally we see emergency alert things like:
Same kid went missing November, 2022
Do not approach and use caution if seen? That is the one who seems to get out a lot doesn’t he? And has reported to have been destructive with private property too? And West Whiteland Police is aware of these issues and doing their best, but what is Devereux doing?
That is the question, what is Devereux doing?WHY do the kids get out and want to get out? Is it that bad there that they want to escape? Doesn’t the public deserve to know what is going on?
Simple Googling can find kids bolting from there since 2016 that I found. Devereux is not a good neighbor if you talk to neighbors around this location, and is it possible there is something wrong at this location that this is why the kids run away? Or is it they aren’t paying attention to their kids?
West Whiteland, isn’t it time to talk about the problems publicly? Or at least what you CAN talk about? The general public is not properly trained to deal with these kids when they run away, and why is it they run away and how do they keep getting out? Maybe a community meeting? Or are we all just supposed to continue to pretend it doesn’t seem to have repeated issues?
Devereux really needs to address this elephant in the neighborhood, i.e. them, don’t they? No one wants to be unfair here, but so much dancing and not a lot of answers?
Same kid went missing November, 2021
Various (but not all) media as it relates to Chester County Devereux problems:
An employee has been charged with multiple attacks on students inside a Chester County behavioral health center, authorities said, including an assault that left a 16-year-old girl with a broken arm.
Christina Borden, of Yeadon, allegedly threw the unidentified student at Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health’s Leo Kanner Learning Center in West Whiteland Township, Pennsylvania, to the ground, then struck the girl multiple times with her knee on Sept. 30, West Whiteland Township police said Wednesday.
The school serves children with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
The victim managed to get to her feet, but Borden, 27, then allegedly struck again, investigators said.
Two other school employees, Monique Scott, 25, of Pomeroy, and Solgie Barbar, 38, of Upper Darby, have been charged with failure to report the incident, police said.
A former employee at Devereux’s Brandywine Campus in Glenmoore was found guilty on Monday by a jury of simple assault and endangering the welfare of a child, announced Chester County District Attorney Deb Ryan.
Alexis Boaz, age 35, was found guilty in a Chester County court of punching and kicking a 14-year-old Devereux resident in the head, face, and body on November 4, 2019.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court, the attack continued until the victim was unconscious and another employee walked in. The victim was taken to Brandywine Hospital for head injuries and marks and lacerations on the head, face, neck, and body.
A jury found 29-year-old Major Yancy of Upper Darby, Delaware County, Pennsylvania guilty this week of neglect of a care-dependent person for physically assaulting an 18-year-old non-verbal client at Devereux in West Whiteland Township, Chester County, in November 2020. Judge Patrick Carmody, who presided over the trial, also found the defendant guilty of harassment. The defendant will be sentenced later…
According to documents, on November 5, 2020, West Whiteland Township Police investigated a Childline report of child abuse at the Devereux Kanner campus located in West Whiteland Township. The report indicated that a witness saw a staff member, identified as Major Yancy, throw an 18-year-old non-verbal resident onto a toilet and punch him in the abdomen.
Investigators interviewed the witness about the incident, which occurred on November 4. The witness said the defendant was helping residents get showered for the night when the victim “flopped” onto the floor, refusing to get into the shower. The witness said she observed the defendant “bear hug” the defendant, lift him into the air and throw him onto a toilet.
When a 16-year-old with severe autism ran naked into the living room of his residential facility at Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health’s campus in West Chester one early evening in September, a staffer turned off the lights and advanced on the boy.
Four times the man punched the teenager — in his head, his ribs, his groin. The boy, who is nonverbal, put up his hands to try to block the blows.
After the teen broke free and fled, the staffer, Olasoji Satimehin, turned the lights back on, looked up at a surveillance camera, then calmly sat down, according to a criminal complaint. Police say he did not know the camera was equipped with night vision.
Satimehin’s October arrest was the most recent in a string of criminal cases at Devereux.
Since July 2018, prosecutors have charged 20 staffers in connection with alleged physical abuse of 18 different children at Devereux’s three residential campuses in Chester County: Leo Kanner in West Chester, Brandywine in Glenmoore, and Mapleton in Malvern, according to an Inquirer review of court records…..
Devereux leaders would not answer questions about specific incidents, citing litigation concerns and privacy laws. In a statement, they said: “These incidents are heartbreaking and unacceptable, and we must always ensure we’ve learned from the past and are constantly driving change in our organization and industry. Every provider in the field must deal with the issue of employees who, despite thorough training, support, and supervision, do the wrong thing in complicated situations.
“At Devereux, we hold ourselves to the highest standards — we know there is still important work to be done and we are committed to protecting those in our care.”
Devereux senior vice president and chief strategy officer Leah Yaw acknowledged that more of its staffers have been arrested for abuse than those at other providers. She attributed that to “our really excellent use of video and reporting and catching incidents and being able to provide evidence so that when people need to be prosecuted, they are successfully prosecuted.”…
Devereux senior vice president and chief strategy officer Leah Yaw acknowledged that more of its staffers have been arrested for abuse than those at other providers. She attributed that to “our really excellent use of video and reporting and catching incidents and being able to provide evidence so that when people need to be prosecuted, they are successfully prosecuted.”…DHS said it has received 254 reports of suspected child abuse and neglect on Devereux’s three Chester County campuses from Jan. 1, 2018, to Nov. 16, 2020, through ChildLine, the state’s 24-hour hotline to report child abuse. DHS officials said they cannot reveal how many children are involved or how many of the reports were founded because the state’s Child Protective Services Law bars them from releasing that information.
It was just after dinner, on a cloudy evening in February, when a 16-year-old boy named Edward decided he couldn’t take it anymore: He left the cafeteria and walked quickly through campus, searching for someone to help him at Devereux Brandywine.
Behind him, Edward’s abuser followed in a van. The boy began to run.
Headquartered 15 miles outside Philadelphia, Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health has specialized in treating children with intellectual disabilities, mental disorders, and trauma for more than a century. Operating 15 residential campuses that serve 5,000 children every year across nine states, Devereux is the nation’s leading nonprofit health organization of its kind.
Its motto: “Unlocking human potential.”
A shy 16-year-old from Clifton Heights, Edward had come to Devereux Brandywine, a campus in Glenmoore, four months earlier. Diagnosed with autism and developmental delays, Edward — his middle name — had spent his childhood in physical and occupational therapy appointments, learning to grip buttons and zippers, to plant his feet on the ground as he walked….
At least 41 children as young as 12, and with IQs as low as 50, have been raped or sexually assaulted by Devereux staff members in the last 25 years, an Inquirer investigation has found.
Of those, 10 said they were assaulted at Devereux’s three campuses in the Philadelphia suburbs, while the others were abused at facilities in New Jersey, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Connecticut, New York, and Arizona.
Devereux leaders, noting that a sexual assault can happen in almost any care setting, said that in the last two years they have increased safety and reduced risk by adopting a host of safeguards to prevent such abuse and hold staffers accountable.
Yet, between October 2018 and March 2019, three girls at a Devereux campus in Arizona were sexually abused by a male staffer in their bedrooms and the facility’s laundry room, they told police.
In December, at a facility in Texas, a Devereux staffer was charged with allegedly sexually abusing four children, including a 16-year-old girl who said he threatened to have her beaten up, and a 12-year-old who said he molested her several times.
And on that cloudy 2018 evening at Devereux Brandywine, Edward revealed to Wilson that a male staffer had been sexually assaulting him on campus for months. The teenager would later tell law enforcement that he was afraid to speak up, but knew he had to: The man had started abusing Edward’s 14-year-old “little brother” too.
A federal class action lawsuit was filed against Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health this week, claiming the nonprofit was negligent and did not protect at least six children from being abused by staffers.
According to the lawsuit, the six children, who ranged in age from 8 to 17 at the time, allegedly were abused between 2003 and 2019 at a Devereux campus — three in Chester County, two in Florida, and one in California. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, does not name individual staffers alleged to be responsible for physical, sexual, and verbal abuse.
First we start with maligning Caroline O’Halloran of Savvy over a certain article. The article as per the temporary Oracle of Wayne as seen above was “twisted, manipulated with a whole bunch of lies with no real facts checked and one sided.”
Yeah well I guess another nuance has been missed by she who takes no accountability is that she was the subject of an article, not a fluff interview? Of course there are two sides to every little story, but please by all means, she should explain to her loyal fans (or are they paid followers? ) how her ends justify any means? Is she saying court dockets lie and so do two local police departments, Radnor and Newtown Township, both in Delaware County?
Clarity here: No one is trying to “run” her away (does she mean drive, perhaps?) , although she seems as if she skipped out on a few communities and different states, oui? All big mistakes there too? And for “she told me I don’t belong here”, who said that? Is that some sort of insecurity speaking? She simply doesn’t get how the Main Line works, and you can’t just move and belong, it takes time, doesn’t it? People don’t just instantaneously let étrangères (strangers) into their lives, and she is that, is she not? Does she not get that? Life isn’t a scripted Bravo reality show.
But to attack a fine woman like Caroline O’Halloran? Meh. Speaks volumes to character, and I can have that opinion.
Apparently I have no free will and this (above) is what she “wanted” me to do? Did you “want” me to show these text messages she sent too? Here, I will post them again….Red is what she said…blue was the sole response of the person she was essentially threatening, or is that how she normally speaks?
Then we get to this next thing. Sharing a photoshop containing Michelle Obama no less. Does she think this magnificent woman of color would condone her behavior?
She dedicated these threats to me? Bless her heart! Let’s start with leave her daughter’s name out of my mouth? Did I ever malign her daughter? Nope. I don’t even know her name. I don’t pick on kids. I will note however, that SHE talks about her daughters on her Instagram “business” page (or one of them, it’s hard to keep up as she has many Instagram personalities, doesn’t she?)
Could I post her kids? Well at least two sure, because they are adults, right? But I won’t because they didn’t create mommy’s messes and you don’t pick on people’s kids, do you?
Oh and by the way I love cows. Ask anyone. Moo.
I need to take care of my health? Another threat? Alrighty and just FYI law enforcement does follow this blog. Je ne comprends pas pourquoi elle aggraverait les choses?
So she then goes on and talks about “rating teeth”? How are we rating them and why?
Karma is a bitch and quoting Kenya Moore from Real Housewives of Atlanta? More threats? Life imitating Bravo? Is that how she sees all this? As her own reality show? Somehow I don’t see Andy Cohen calling her up no matter how many Bravoleberities she poses with in the Hamptons, do you???
She wanted me to post her photos? Does it include this one at the bottom of the post? Or these? Please note that I blurred out her kids.
It’s all a very odd, odd thing. She goes on to say attorneys, family, friends tell her to stay off of social media? Yet she can’t. Is she craving attention? Over this? Why? She talks about obsessed, yet she opens the doors with her behavior? And what is with the “By Karen”? Is Karen a personality of hers? Or does she mean “Bye Karen”?
She is obsessed with belonging on the Main Line, right? Proving she’s good enough or something? She is obsessed with getting publicity good, bad, or indifferent? So if people are watching her, she’s getting what she wants so how does that make others obsessed exactly? She creates a buzz all by herself via she is saying online and in interviews, but she does or doesn’t want the attention? Does notorious mean she is selling out of her online store she seems to have on her website? She mentions a “showroom” ? Is that wherever she is living in Wayne? See photo above and is that commercial or is it residential? Looks residential, doesn’t it? ?
And at every turn one gets the whiff of an attempt to make this issue about race? It’s not and never has been about race. It’s about right and wrong, something most children understand, yes? ASPD much?
People have asked me why Melissa Jacobs wrote her two pieces. I don’t know her and I cannot answer that. Ask her. She thinks she was doing the right thing per some public commentary on Facebook:
Sadly, we can’t control how this woman currently in Wayne feels about any of us who are aghast at the behavior, but we have a right to our opinions, only we’re not threatening her, are we? She seems to do that though, doesn’t she? She says she wants to stay, yet she feels she is being pushed out ? How can she be pushed out of a community she really doesn’t belong to? Belonging takes time, and the Main Line is a funny place. It might not be what it was, but it marches to the beat of it’s own drummer so to speak. And some people push themselves out. The psychology here is fascinating.
So Downingtown Auction House? I know it’s got to be whom I am thinking of and they are wonderful and this is not them. They have been around, and do lots of American and portraits. This painting was shipped from Beverly Hills, CA I am told by a woman who used auctioneers in the past. That makes me wonder if she is an ex-Chester County native? An ex-pat so to speak? That is what I hypothesize, right or wrong.
Things that strike me as odd include: do we know the subject of the portrait or the painter? NBC 10 Reporter Deanna Durante’s report indicated other authorities perhaps getting involved who deal in art theft? And possibly being listed on a website called Art Loss Registry.
I do not pretend to know much about 18th century portrait painters, but as far as auctioning something, often people will send stuff to auction where they think they have a market. So I wonder if that is in part why a Downingtown, PA auction house was chosen? Could this painting have regional historical interest? This is of course why my inner Nancy Drew wishes authorities would release more information on the painting. Perhaps if we knew more about the painting, we could know more about why it was stolen, unless it was just a crime of opportunity perhaps originating in California and now whomever is stuck with a hot potato? What are authorities in California saying, for example?
So West Whiteland PD says it shipped from Beverly Hills, CA? If you Google there are 3 active Beverly Hills FedEx locations, or so I discovered. Maybe I am wrong, I don’t know. I am not exactly an expert on Beverly Hills.
So, it was prepared by a business in California and shipped FedEx ground? You would need someone to expertly crate it and ship it, right? I know FedEx can do that, I have done that through the FedEx in Malvern. But one thing about the FedEx in Malvern. A couple of times I have missed a delivery and had to go there to pick it up. I have had to show ID and so forth, so I am still confused as to WHY the person at FedEx in Exton released the painting?
I will note, that I do NOT believe UPS will let you change where something is delivered to once it is shipped, but someone will have to verify that. No clue about USPS because I do not see them as an avenue of shipping for art, do you? Again, maybe I am wrong.
Deanna Durante’s report mentions the painting may have been re-frames and may have “L Parks” on the back of it. It was packed and shipped at a FedEx in Beverly Hills. Christie’s Auctions actually has an article about how the BACK of a painting can tell as much of a story as the subject and painter of a painting.
I am kind of fascinated that I can’t find any media in the Los Angeles area talking about this yet. Maybe it will end up just stealing for stealing, but maybe it is because of whomever painted the painting or whom the subject was?
Doesn’t it seem this is a total FedEx thing? After all, has FedEx piped up about this at all? So FedEx is this an “inside job” that started in Los Angeles or Beverly Hills?
Police say this painting was taken Friday, January 27, 2023 at 7:15 A.M. Since the public has only recently heard of this can we say the poor lady who owned it exhausted all avenues with FedEx? Yes, I know, I am becoming repetitive. I am just fascinated by this, as are lots of people.
If you see the painting, please call police. Or wouldn’t it be nice if the thief just RETURNED the painting?
A few weeks ago I saw these Crimewatch PA blurbs from West Whiteland Township. White Collar crimes, something you do not see often. The names were Verna, Karen and Verna, Joseph.
Originally these popped around Valentine’s Day. I threw up a post based on what I saw. That was that.
I figured the media would find this curious and follow-up. Crickets. And white collar crimes seem to be a media thing these days, including on the Main Line. And because it’s white collar you would think consumer affairs TV reporters might be interested? Nope. Crickets.
Today I wondered “what ever happened?” so I went back to the court dockets. New dockets. New entries. A formal arraignment on March 23, 2023 at 9:15 AM in front of Judge Analisa Sondergaard unless it gets moved. And when I looked again at the Crimewatch entries were updated to include photos, so now the names have faces.
So I am guessing this guy is a chiropractor in Florida now? (It came up in a Google search. You can look up the FL license, it’s public, also listed on PA state site so I guess that is it, huh?) Business must have been in West Whiteland since that is the PD that did it? And now there is the Chester County DA listed on the new dockets?
Don’t know the man. Don’t know the wife. But that is some interesting stack of charges on him and if you read the dockets, the charges say 2009 which means this has been going on a while??? How do you do that? Greed? Malice? Stupidity? Whatever the case may be, this one has the earmarking of a doozy of a tale, doesn’t it?
Sure is interesting. Sure feel sorry for whomever they did dirty. Maybe now the media will pick it up now that there are photos on the Crimewatch listings and a late March court date?
Kevin Riordan of The Philadelphia Inquirer has this brand new article out. About development in Swarthmore. Swarthmore one of the last places with beautiful trees and not overtaken by ugly development…until now. And the players include the guy who went from zoning and planning dude in West Goshen Township to Swarthmore Borough Manager (William Webb) and the former Borough Mayor of Swarthmore and developer/builder, Bill Cumby.
I will start with not a big fan of West Goshen and West Goshen employee refugees because West Goshen just always has issues. And then there is this once a politician always a politician former mayor of Swarthmore and how can he really want to build something so out of character and out of scale in a small main street oriented community that is also home to lovely homes with terrific gardens and street trees, Swarthmore College, and Scott Arboretum? Political/personal gain? I mean you don’t want to think that, but this plan? It’s like all the bad plans for Ardmore, PA mated with Eastside Flats in Malvern Borough and The Elm in Narberth, and had an alien love child.
This proposed plan? One word: HIDEOUS.
No Swarthmore is not in Chester County. It’s in Delaware County. And Swarthmore and Media are two of my favorite Main Street small town feel towns. So yes, I am expressing my dismay. Honest, heart-felt dismay.
A local developer’s proposed condominium complex in Swarthmore would offer ready access to a SEPTA Regional Rail station as well as to shops, restaurants, and cultural amenities in the heart of the Delaware County borough.
Called 110 Park, the $30 million, five-story building would increase the town center’s population and provide Swarthmore empty-nesters an opportunity to downsize in their community. The proposal also includes 1,250 square feet of retail space and preservation of the facade and front section of the Celia Building, a Park Avenue landmark….a significant number of Swarthmore residents, including architects, preservationists, and businesspeople, say 110 Park would dwarf its low-rise surroundings, cast a literal and figurative shadow over the town center, and erode the borough’s distinctive character.
They also oppose the pending demolition of two vintage buildings and see the proposed 40-space parking garage at the complex as a potential threat to pedestrian and vehicular traffic safety….Ever since the developer, 110 Park LLC, submitted the first iteration of the proposal for review in 2021, public concerns have focused on the impact of replacing a small-town expanse of Park Avenue streetscape that includes green space with a residential building more appropriate for a city block…..The council is expected to vote on the measure on March 13.
Melanie Rodbart, one of the founders of a nonprofit called Save Our Swarthmore….is not opposed to town center development, including on Park Avenue.
“There’s a way to develop that site without razing everything on it,” said Rodbart, a structural engineer and owner of a company that specializes in historic preservation….
Incorporated in 1893 and best known as the home of Swarthmore College, the borough is an inner-ring commuter suburb of Philadelphia. It has about 6,500 residents in its 1.4 square miles and features comfortable homes on tree-lined streets named after universities.
The Cumby family has been a part of Swarthmore for generations, and Bill Cumby, a former borough mayor who owns W.S. Cumby, a Delaware County construction firm, is a partner in developing 110 Park….Prices would range from $600,000 for some one-bedrooms to $1 million and above for three-bedroom units….The controversy has alerted Swarthmore residents to what some describe as shortcomings in the borough’s development regulations. Although none of the buildings to be demolished or altered as part of the 110 Park project are on registries of historic places, the 100 block of Park Avenue is eligible to be declared a historic district but has not been proposed as such.
So Bill, Will, Willy, whatever you go by Webb are you actually LISTENING to your Swarthmore residents, the people whose taxes pay your salary? Because if you were listening you would know what the temperature is on this project.
Now Swarthmore has a big old page on their website devoted to this hideous project: CLICK HERE.
Some company called Bernardon has design plan things on their website: CLICK HERE.
Developer and former mayor guy has a website for his proposed project: CLICK HERE. He is heavy on the hype to get monster Lego land approved in my humble opinion.
Residents have banded together. Their group is SOS or Save Our Swarthmore. They seemed to have one of my favorite land use lawyers and former Lower Merion Commissioners assisting them. Phillip Rosenzweig, Esq. (Now for those of you reading, yes indeed this is indeed one of the land use lawyers I talk about as being AMAZING. He is also the guy that wrote that piece of fabulousness that ended eminent domain for private gain in Ardmore, PA when he first became a commissioner. And no, he is not a commissioner now, which is a shame for Lower Merion.) Here’s something off the SOS site he penned regarding this hot mess of a proposal for Swarthmore:
Swarthmorians fight for your town. Human scale matters. Fitting the existing landscape matters. You have an old school main street oriented town. It should be a historic district. Learn from the mistakes of other towns. Preserve what you have. I find it completely appalling that someone who once was an elected official and lives in Swarthmore thinks this is right for the character of your town. I am allowed to have that opinion. I feel for you guys. I applaud your efforts.
