Anna is 91 years old, legally blind, and hard of hearing. She likes shopping and Johnny Cash. She is also mentally retarded and has spent the last 50 years at the state's Fernald Developmental Center in Waltham, a sprawling facility that the Patrick administration wants to close.
On the day before Valentine's Day, staff members from a new state-run group home in Bedford picked up Anna for an "outing."
Now, she is living in the Bedford home, and an advocacy group is arguing in court that she was taken against her wishes, jeopardizing her health and happiness. After a hearing in federal court yesterday, US District Judge Joseph L. Tauro is considering ordering an investigation of the Patrick administration and the woman's guardians to determine if they violated an order he issued in August barring officials from moving residents from Fernald unless they and their guardians agreed.
It marks the latest twist in nearly four decades of litigation over Fernald.
Governor Deval L. Patrick, like his predecessor Mitt Romney, wants to close Fernald, once home to about 2,000 people, and transfer its residents to group homes that administration officials said would provide better, more cost-effective care. Patrick is appealing Tauro's ruling allowing residents to stay at Fernald to the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, which is expected to hear arguments later this year.
But the Fernald League for the Retarded, an advocacy group for families and guardians of the center's 170 remaining residents, contends the center has begun moving vulnerable residents out under questionable circumstances.
The hearing yesterday focused on Anna, whose last name was not spoken in court to protect her privacy. Anna, also referred to in court as A.T., has lived at the home for a half-century; has only one living relative, an elderly sister in New Hampshire; and has many health problems, including blindness, impaired hearing, and a heart condition.
Under questioning by Beryl Cohen, a lawyer for the Fernald League, a former employee of the Arc of Greater Boston, the corporate guardian for A.T. and some other residents, testified that she had spoken with A.T. at Fernald several times while working as a case manager from August 2006 until last week. She said A.T. unequivocally told her she did not want to leave the center.
"She clearly stated 'no,' " said Linda Curran, who added that A.T. was "adamant about staying."
After Curran conveyed A.T.'s feelings to supervisors and expressed her own opposition to moving Fernald residents to group homes in Bedford and Shrewsbury, Arc of Greater Boston stripped her of her caseload and gave it to a co-worker, she said. That employee recently approved moving the elderly woman to Bedford on Feb. 13.
Curran said her supervisors told her that all residents eventually had to leave Fernald. She ultimately resigned because of her disagreement with them, she said.
In recent weeks, Arc of Greater Boston, which has a contract with the state, has also helped arrange transfers for nine other residents from Fernald, state officials said.
Several officials from the corporate guardian and the Department of Mental Retardation, which oversees care for the residents, disputed Curran's account.
Terri Angelone, the chief executive officer for Arc of Greater Boston, said residents will not be moved if they want to stay at Fernald. She also denied her agency had pressured Curran to approve A.T.'s transfer or took her caseload away.
But in response to a question from the judge, Angelone conceded that Curran could not keep her cases and continue to oppose moving residents from Fernald.
Carrie Johnson, the Arc employee who took over Curran's caseload, said she spoke with A.T. several times in recent weeks about possibly moving to the Bedford group home. Johnson said A.T. indicated she was more concerned about how staff at Fernald would feel about her departure than about her own adjustment.
A.T. visited the Bedford home several times before her Feb. 13 move and grew fond of the employees as well as the setting, Johnson said. She has a larger room than she did at Fernald and a double-size bed instead of a twin-size bed. And she has a closet for the first time.
On Feb. 13, Johnson said, Bedford employees came to Fernald and took A.T. out for a cup of coffee. They then took her to the group home, where A.T. said she wanted to take a nap and then said, "I'm home."
But when Cohen questioned Johnson, he derided the suggestion that A.T. had gone on an outing and simply decided to stay at Bedford. "Isn't a visit time-limited?" he asked.
"Right," Johnson said.
Cohen said that in his questioning of Johnson, he wanted to determine "whether or not A.T. was deceived on Feb. 13."
Juan Martinez, a spokesman for the state Office of Health and Human Services, which oversees the Department of Mental Retardation, said after the hearing that the agency would never participate in deceptions.
"The decision to move someone is made by the resident and his or her legal guardian, not by the state," he said in a written statement. "Once the resident and their legal guardian have come to an agreement, they contact the state and we help from there."
Toward the start of yesterday's hearing, Tauro said he planned to ask US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan to investigate whether anyone had violated the order he issued in August.
But he later said he intended to take the matter under advisement and issue an order soon.
Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at jsaltzman@globe.com
