Nov 5, 2013 1 min read heartshare

Non-Profit Headed By Community Board Chairman Slapped With Lawsuit Claiming Abuse Of Disabled Man

Family photos of Jorge Cabello, 24, who has Down Syndrome, showing what his family alleges was an attack on him while he was being cared for at Heartshare Human Services in Brooklyn, in September 2012. Jorge came home that day with a blackened eye and fractured face, and his family wants to know how it happened. The agency says it turned up no signs of abuse. — A photo taken by the family of Jorge Cabello that shows some of his injuries (via NYDailyNews.com)

HeartShare Human Services, a nonprofit serving the disabled headed by the chairperson of Bensonhurst’s Community Board 11, was slapped with a lawsuit that alleges a worker abused a developmentally disabled man, and that the organization gave the runaround when family came looking for answers.

The lawsuit claims that 24-year-old Jorge Cabello, who has Down syndrome, returned home from a HeartShare affiliate in Bed-Stuy with a facial fracture, black eye and other bruises on September 7, 2012. When the family went looking for answers, they were told he was hurt “walking into a door frame.”

The Daily News reports that the suit notes bruises on his knees and injuries “signaling that he was punched, kicked, his hands were held behind his back and he was beaten.”

Additionally, the facility removed his clothing, washed it, and sent him home with the wet clothes in a bag and no explanation.

As the family followed pressed further for additional information, Cabello was booted from the program without explanation.

The Daily News reports:

[The Cabello family’s attorney Robinson] Iglesias plans to go to court next month and compel HeartShare to reveal what happened to the 24-year-old.

HeartShare — which reported gross receipts of $92 million in its 2011 tax filings — receives funding from the state Office for People with Developmental Disabilities as well as the New York State Education Department and the New York City Department of Education.

The flush nonprofit is run by William Guarinello, who is also the longtime chairman of Community Board 11 in Bath Beach and earned about $530,000 in total compensation in 2011, according to HeartShare tax documents.

… The agency would not comment on the lawsuit or explain why Cabello was thrown out of the program, but said it did launch an investigation into his injuries.

“In the incident involving this individual, multiple levels of investigations did not find that any abuse occurred,” a HeartShare spokeswoman said in a statement.