Two former employees of Beacon Light Behavioral Health Systems
accused of child abuse in the 2004 drowning death of a child
resident have been cleared of any wrongdoing by an administrative
law judge.

In a ruling entered July 3, Department of Welfare Administrative
Law Judge Katrina Dunderdale directed the Department of Public
Welfare to expunge the records of Janel Roller Riel and Ryan
Swanson regarding what was ruled the accidental death of
14-year-old Dustin Dembinski on May 23, 2004, at Heffner Reservoir
in Bradford.

The two had been reported to ChildLine, the state child abuse
hotline, by Beacon Light officials, according to court records.
Reports were entered against both Riel and Swanson for Dustin and
for two other children who were also swimming that day and
experienced trouble.

According to the Department of Public Welfare’s Web site, state
law requires prospective child care service and school employees to
obtain child abuse clearances from the Department to ensure they
are not a known perpetrator of child abuse or student abuse.

Child care agencies are prohibited from employing any person who
will have direct contact with children if the individual was
convicted of certain criminal offenses or was named as a
perpetrator of a founded report of child abuse within five years
preceding the request for a clearance.

In a separate matter, after Dustin’s death, Riel and Swanson
were each charged criminally with endangering the welfare of a
child in McKean County Court. In February of 2005, they were
admitted to the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition Program for
six months and were required to complete 120 hours of community
service.

After successful completion of the ARD program, the complaint is
dismissed and the case closed, according to regular court
procedure. The defendant in the case does not enter a plea to the
charge and the criminal record is expunged when the program is
successfully completed.

Regarding the ChildLine complaint, Beacon Light Vice President
and Chief Operating Officer James Wiseman – in conjunction with
President and Chief Executive Officer Tom Urban – entered the
report May 28, 2004. The report indicated that Riel’s and Swanson’s
decision to allow the children to swim that day was “against agency
policy and practice that prohibits swimming activities in areas not
protected by a certified lifeguard.”

According to the judge’s decision in 2006, at the time of the
accident, Beacon Light had no swimming policy in place which
required staff members to take residents swimming only where a
lifeguard was present – despite previous testimony to the contrary
by Wiseman.

According to transcripts from a hearing held March 8 in front of
Dunderdale, Wiseman said the agency had no written policies in
place regarding swimming with residents of the group homes.
Instead, Wiseman said, there was a “culture … of Beacon Light that
we don’t do that. Again, it’s not a written policy, but it’s just
been a practice that people have not taken kids in unguarded
waters.”

Attorney Anthony Clarke of Bradford represented Riel and Swanson
at the hearing.

Clarke asked Wiseman – who began his career at Beacon Light
directly caring for the residents – who had explained that policy
to him when he was in that position.

“Other staff members,” Wiseman replied, according to the
transcripts. “We were just always told that we have to go to places
where there’s a lifeguard like the local pools.”

However, he could not name those staff members when Clarke asked
him to, and said he never directly told Riel or Swanson about the
unwritten policy regarding swimming, the transcripts read.

In her ruling, Dunderdale said that, in her opinion, “there was
no swimming policy at the (residential treatment facility) on May
23, 2004, which required staffers – or which informed staffers – of
the need to take youth swimming only where a lifeguard was
present,” the records read.

In Riel’s case, the judge explains that Riel had personally seen
Dustin swim without difficulty previously and had no reason to
believe he would come to harm if he swam in the reservoir that
day.

The judge calls the drowning “an accidental consequence that
resulted when subject child started swimming towards the opposite
shore without requesting permission…”

Both Riel and Swanson were also cleared of any wrongdoing in the
cases of the other two children who were in the water that day as
well, with the judge saying the children’s disobedience was the
intervening factor.

“In addition, the Department’s position is contrary to the
regulations and the statute because it extends the proscriptions
too far,” Dunderdale wrote. She said that by the Department of
Public Welfare’s argument in this case, “every parent or caretaking
individual has abused a child by imminent risk if the parent/adult
is over the age of 14 years and takes a minor swimming this summer
to a reservoir or creek where no lifeguard is present.”

She goes on to say the actions of the two were not foolhardy and
did not constitute abuse.

The Heffner Reservoir, where the drowning happened, is owned by
the Bradford Water Authority. Dunderdale wrote in her findings of
fact in the case that there were two “no swimming” signs posted at
the reservoir at the time of the drowning, “but one is located on
the far side of the reservoir and the other has been partially
obliterated. The local water authority does not police the
reservoir and local residents frequently swim in the
reservoir.”