At least 6 Point Woronzof staff members had some kind of sexual relationship with a client during the time I was employed. Below is one incident.

"Zack",  "Joseph",  "Philbert" and "Guido" are all clients.   The staff member is "Sue".
  • Zack is the client who gets disciplined with a "Learning Experience" on the Freud page. Zack was a young (early 20's) client who had a lot of power at Clitheroe. For some time it was a mystery why supervisors were doing such bizarre favors for him.

  • Joseph is the client who made the complaint. He said that Zack and another client were being obnoxious to his female visitor at an open N.A. meeting.  
  • Joseph and Philbert never had any disciplinary problems whatsoever at Clitheroe.

One day a staff member (Sue) said to me harshly "Go tell Philbert that he has to stop holding hands with his girlfriend".  Zack was sitting next to Sue.
Philbert looked like he was... just holding hands with his girlfriend.


I said to Sue something like: "He's allowed to do that. Lots of clients are being affectionate". (It was visiting hour).  Sue said: "I don't care. Go tell him to stop it". Eventually I went to Philbert and said "I have no idea what is going on, but I was told to tell you not to hold hands... etc".

I went back over to Sue, and she said "Now go back and tell him again". She made more comments that were confusing. It was obvious that something funny was going on, and we talked a bit (with Zack sitting next to Sue). In the end I went back over to Philbert and said "You cannot hold hands anymore with your girlfriend, I'm not sure why."
                                                       ----
About that time (February), Sue asked if it would be alright if one of my clients (Guido) spent some time in Detox playing on the computer. I said that Guido had been getting a lot of special privileges, and it was making me uncomfortable. I said that if it was approved by a supervisor than okay, otherwise not.

Sue got approval from the supervisor and it was made clear that Guido could go to Detox anytime he wanted, and there would be no problem.

Several weeks later I learned that Sue had been having sex with Guido for some time, and Zack had found out about it. When Zack found out that Philbert had made a complaint against him (the one that I issued the L.E. for), Zack told Sue that he knew all about the sex. Sue was obligated to do what Zack told her to do, if she wanted Zack to keep quiet.

From then on, the female staff members who were having sex with Guido were under the control of client Zack.

Zack was now the boss of a lot of Clitheroe.

When Sue tried to get me to yell at Philbert, she was being puppet-mastered by Zack.  
 
Additionally, Joseph (Philbert's friend) had once interrupted Sue having sex with a client in a room near Detox called the "fishbowl room". Sue asked Joseph if he wanted to join them, but Joseph declined. (A supervisor told me about that). After that, Joseph and his friend Philbert knew what was going on, and there was not a lot they could do. If the wrong staff members felt threatened by their knowledge, Joseph and Philbert would be accused of some ridiculous offense (to drop their credibility), and expelled.

At this point, most of the under 30 year old female staff at Clitheroe were having sex with one client in particular, and numerous clients and staff were aware of it. One or two supervisors seem to have actively facilitated the relationships, and there is a fair chance that one of the supervisors was more directly involved.

Nothing was done about the sexual adventuring until a client made a tape-recording of a staff member (who he was having sex with) threatening him. Then, only several low level staff members were punished. All senior staff members (i.e., Directors) were aware the client was getting special treatment, even if most of them did not know exactly why.

Because one supervisor (who was directly involved) was never disciplined (and even managed to continue doing favors for that client) it's likely she held something over the heads of other Directors.

The Residential Director refused to discuss the matter, even in private conversation. Here he is on audio at the hearing.