METH RAID SHUTS DOWN CARE HOME

State Suspends License Of Havens Family Home Operator.

POMONA -- The operator of a residential care facility in Pomona had
her license temporarily suspended Monday by the state Department of
Social Services after police arrested two men Friday night on
suspicion of making methamphetamine there, authorities said.

The revocation of the license could become permanent within a month,
department spokeswoman Blanca Barna said.

Mary Havens, who was issued a license to run a home for
developmentally disabled senior citizens in 1993, has indicated to the
state she no longer wants to run the home, Barna said. But the process
to permanently revoke her license will continue.

Pomona police raided Havens Family Home at 562 W. 7th St. and arrested
the two men Friday. Richard Frederick Fraley, 30, and Mario Baca, 29,
are scheduled to appear in court today. Both men are suspected of
manufacturing methamphetamine. Fraley is also suspected of child
endangerment and dependent adult endangerment. His 7-year-old son and
11-year-old daughter lived there and were taken into protective
custody, police said.

Fraley spent a lot of time at the home, though he had not been cleared
by the Department of Social Services to do so, Barna said. State law
requires a background check on any adult who spends a significant
amount of time near clients of a care home, be that person directly
attached with the actual care of the patients or not.

Like all residential facilities, the Havens Family Home is inspected
each year. No violations were indicated in the report from the last
inspection, filed in November. However, during the exit interview,
Havens indicated she planned to follow up and get fingerprint
clearance to allow her granddaughter to be on site.

Four elderly dependent adults were living in the home at the time of
the raid, Barna said. Some had lived there since 1989, when the home
was operated by someone else. Their families were contacted
immediately, and the clients were given physical exams at a local
hospital, she said.

"Because this was a methamphetamine lab, the fumes that they could
have inhaled may have affected anything in them," Barna said.

The Red Cross provided emergency shelter for them over the weekend. By
Monday, they had been placed in new residential facilities.

Criminal activity in a state licensed care home is not common, Barna
said, but when discovered, steps are taken immediately to shut the
facility down. A simple phone call to the police, or to the
department's licensing division, could go a long way, she said. Calls
can be anonymous.

The local licensing division had no indication of dangerous activity
going on at the home, otherwise it would have been closed immediately,
she said.

"There could have been folks who saw something going on and we would
have been on it sooner rather than later," Barna said.

"We need that kind of cooperation from the community."