This adult day care center is seriously off the wall — heaven for its Russian clients and a separate hell for those who are black and Hispanic.
A mentally disabled black man was forced to dress up as Michael Jackson and sometimes wear women’s clothes to entertain Russian clients at the troubled Brooklyn facility, a shocking lawsuit charges.
The Northern Adult Daily Health Center in Park Slope, which offers services to adults with physical and mental disabilities, was run like a “Russian social club” where black and Hispanic clients were segregated and mistreated, according to the suit filed in Brooklyn Federal Court.
Meals, for example, were catered by a Russian restaurant, and Russian clients were allowed to booze it up, partake in arts and crafts, and party in a large room equipped with a piano for singing and dancing. Blacks and Hispanics, on the other hand, were consigned to a separate room to watch pornographic flicks on a small TV, and there was a video machine for playing card games.
A black man identified only as Alfred was forced to “dress in embarrassing costumes for the entertainment and amusement of white Russian registrants,” the suit alleges.
Robert Sadowski, a lawyer for the three workers who claim they were retaliated against after complaining about the disparate treatment of minorities, said Alfred was made to wear a wig, a red shirt and white glove for the Michael Jackson show. The lawyer says the proof is on video.
“Because he’s mentally disabled, Alfred would do whatever he was told,” Sadowski told the Daily News. “They used Medicaid funds for a Russian social club and the minorities were made to feel like second-class citizens.”
The suit was unsealed last week after the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney’s office disclosed it had conducted an investigation of the allegations and declined to sue Northern. But the feds will continue to monitor the civil case, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth Abell.
The number of black and Hispanic adults attending Northern has dwindled as a result of the alleged racism, the suit claims.
Burt Dorfman, a lawyer for the not-for-profit, said Northern doesn’t discriminate against anyone.
“These allegations are absolutely fictitious,” Dorfman said.
Last month, after a separate probe, state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced a $6.5 million settlement for Medicaid fraud involving Northern’s center for senior citizens in Park Slope, and the arrests of four workers including program director Galena Deverman on grand larceny charges. Deverman is a defendant in the whistleblowers’ suit.
A 65-year-old black woman who attends the day care center said the allegations of racism are bunk.
“It’s not a racial thing, it’s a cultural thing,” said the woman, who is physically disabled. “If there is segregation, it’s due to language barriers. No one is pushed aside.”
“I know Alfred,” said the retired dancer who claims she oversaw music for the show. “I was dressed as a German soldier. Many of us were in costumes. Nobody was denigrated.”
She also said she was one of three blacks in the day program, but attributed the decline in minorities to a major insurer pulling its coverage.
