Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Authorities continue digging into Guest House operation

The continuing investigation into Robert Dupont, Joplin River of Life Ministries, and the operation of area Guest House group homes continues and it is looking like a comedy of errors turned tragic.
Associated Press reporter David Lieb continues revealing the flaws in government oversight of Dupont and the Guest Houses in the latest installment of his series:

Robert DuPont was removed as an officer of Joplin River of Life Ministries following his conviction. But upon his release from federal prison, he returned to work - albeit not in his previous official role.

A Department of Mental Health document obtained by the AP shows "Bob DuPont" was present with one other administrator for a Sept. 24, 2004, post-inspection briefing of the River of Life's Guest House I facility in Joplin.

Robert DuPont's signature - under the heading of "facility representative" - is on an April 21, 2005, exit interview report of Guest House III in Joplin conducted by inspectors from the Division of Aging, which now is a part of the health department. Among the inspectors' citations listed on the document was an unspecified fire safety violation.

Another document lists "Bob Du Pont" as one of three people from Joplin River of Life Ministries who provided information when mental health inspectors visited Guest House I on Sept. 21, 2006.

The health department said it also had found other documents bearing Robert DuPont's name but could not release them Wednesday.

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This is looking more and more embarrassing for state officials, but don't look at this as something that can be blamed on the Blunt administration. Dupont had Guest Houses closed in Lamar, Springfield, and Butler, while Mel Carnahan was governor and has continued his involvement with them non-stop for two decades.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well Blunt is in office now and this tragedy happened now so I do put a lot of the blame on him.