ANTI-DRUG PROGRAM COMES UNDER FIRE

Former participants in a church-supported drug treatment center closed
by the city last week say they were beaten and denied food as part of
their treatment.

But the center's directors and its remaining participants hotly deny
these charges and say its "Christ-centered" program of intensive
prayer has helped save dozens from drug and alcohol addiction.

Fuente de Esperanza, or Fountain of Hope, was ordered closed last week
when Cleveland fire, building and health officials found "extremely
hazardous" and "life-threatening" conditions in its building at
7403-05 St. Clair.

The program has relocated to two Pentecostal churches on the West
Side, said the center's vice president, the Rev. Eddie Negron.

But the controversy surrounding it is far from over; Cleveland City
Councilman Joe Cimperman intends to ask county prosecutors to
investigate the allegations of mistreatment, and his colleague Bill
Patmon has put on hold an offer of $9,000 to help the center renovate
the St. Clair property.

Many of those complaining about the center - and many of its defenders
- - are from Hatillo, Puerto Rico. About 50 men from the town have come
to Fuente de Esperanza for treatment, many at the town's expense.

Some, like Tony Reyes, 26, said reports of the program’s success had
motivated him to sign up.

"They said it was like a five-star hotel with a swimming pool," he
said, partly through an interpreter. "But when I got here, I couldn’t
believe it. I saw cockroaches roaming all over the place, and the
floor was dirty."

"I felt as if I was being persecuted," said Juan Cordero, 27, through
an interpreter. "They would shove you and mistreat and throw you on
the floor to sleep as punishment to make you behave and cooperate.
They wouldn’t feed you."

Even worse, according to Cordero, who said he paid his own way to
Cleveland, is that participants received little counseling for their
drug abuse. The main method of treatment was prayer.

"They made us pray all day," he said. "I felt like a religious
robot."

Negron and the center’s director, the Rev. Luis A. Seijo, denied
mistreating Cordero or anyone else. They and several current
participants interviewed said the program has freed many alcohol and
drug abusers of their addictions.

"They are lying up to their necks," said Luis Cortes, a program
graduate who is now on its staff. "They know that the center is not
like that. They left because they were not ready to deal with their
addiction."

And several participants said prayer was effective.

"I’ve been in about 15 other programs," said Emilio Martinez, 32, of
Newark, N.J. "This one is working because it has God in it."

But it isn’t just former participants who criticized the center’s
conditions.

Vivian Riccio, executive director of Esperanza Inc., a scholarship
organization not associated with the treatment program, visited the
center this month after hearing complaints about it.

"The conditions were appalling," Riccio said. "It was very
overcrowded. When I spoke with [Seijo], he said that 45 men were
living there, and another 15 were on their way."

Angel R. Dones, publisher of Nuevos Horizontes, a Spanish-language
weekly newspaper in Cleveland, said many former participants tell the
same story.

"About 15 people have made their way from there to my office" over the
past several months, he said. "They all said the same thing about how
badly they had been treated. Another kid came to me this week. He said
he had been sleeping on the streets for seven of eight weeks."

Riccio said she contacted the city, which in turn ordered the property
inspected.

Fire Chief Kevin Gerrity said yesterday that the building had a
multitude of fire, housing and health code violations and that the
organization had failed to get a building variance to use the
storefronts as a residential center with a church.

Seijo and Negron said that the city knew the building had violations
and that they were working to address the problems. They said their
program is supported largely by church contributions.

Officials for the state Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction
Services say the program does not need state certification because it
does not use public funding.

Negron, who is a state-certified drug counselor, said the allegations
against the program are being fueled by others in the Hispanic
community "who are out to get us." He declined to give names.

Mayor Juan L. Cuevas Castro of Hatillo said yesterday that the city
has spent about $20,000 in public funds to send the 50 addicts to
Cleveland for treatment. The money went for air fare and a $75 fee for
each participant.

Five of the program’s graduates had since returned to Hatillo, he
said. They remain drug-free and have only good things to say about
their stay in Cleveland. But even before the allegations surfaced, he
added, Hatillo officials had decided to send no further participants
until the program’s effectiveness could be evaluated.