A lawsuit has been filed with The Superior Court of New Jersey in Somerset County(Docket No. 98-00533) by Joseph and Joyce Bonanno against the Arc of Union County on behalf of their son Nicholas Bonanno. Nicholas is a 28 year old male with Autism. For the past three years he was recieving residential and day services from the ARC of Union County , funded by the State of New Jersey Department of Human Services, Division of Developmental Disabilities.

The suit charges that Nicholas was mentally and physically abused by the the staff of the ARC, as well as charging the staff and executives of the ARC with covering up these abuses. The Bonanno's also charge that staff and executives failed to report unexplained bruses to the Division of Developmental Disabilities as required by the State Department of Human Services.

The family claims that the abuse took place over a one and half year period during which time Nicholas went through unexplained changes in personality and behavior. The abuse was brought to light after an incident were a senior staff member slapped Nicholas' face then removed her shoe, chased him and struck him on the bsck of his head causing a laceration requiring staples to close. ARC employees knowingly provided false information to the police, the hospital, and the parents in an attempt to cover up the incident, taking advantage of the fact that Nicholas is non-verbal.

The suit also charges the Executive Director, Frank Caragher with continuing to victimize this autistic young man by going on a mission to discontinue his day services and evict him from the home which he had become accustom,while going against policy set forth by the Department Human Services, Division of Developmental Disabilities and the advise of Nicholas' medical providers.

For more information contact:

Joseph M Bonanno                      
31 Shadowbrook Court                  
Bernardsville, New Jersey 07924       
908-204-0717                          
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it                                 

Nina Weiss, Esq.
118 Tamarcack Circle
Princeton, New Jersey 08543
609-924-4818
serraweiss.com

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