Residents at a state-run center in Pueblo for the severely intellectually disabled were subjected to sexual assaults and ongoing physical abuse and neglect from 2012 to early 2016. Incidents ranging from patient discomfort to more severe allegations of abuse were reported at a rate of about 150 each month to the center’s staff during that time, according to federal records.

In the end, just two staff members were charged criminally and only one was convicted. That was for the petty offense of making too much noise. At least 12 cases were investigated by the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office. Eight employees were fired.

The reasons that so few faced criminal sanctions range from difficulty prosecuting cases in which the victims are mute and incapacitated to a reluctance on the part of co-workers to testify against one another. But a review by The Denver Post also found significant miscues in how police work initially was handled.

State officials have conceded that protocols for protecting the disabled were not followed at the center, inhibiting investigations and raising concerns about a system that is supposed to provide care for as many as 12,000 intellectually and developmentally disabled people throughout the state.

Read full story at denverpost.com