WASHINGTON -- Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) has become a top-tier candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in recent weeks by appealing to evangelical voters as a man steeped in family values and his Christian faith. From 2007 to 2011, however, Santorum served on the board of directors of Universal Health Services Inc., a large hospital chain which racked up dozens of allegations of abuse during that time -- including everything from rape to suicide attempts allowed by neglect to murder.
Over the years, states have barred children from attending UHS facilities over safety concerns and the feds have put UHS on their radar. Department of Justice lawyers have filed two lawsuits accusing the chain of fraudulent activities. One lawsuit settled for $27.5 million. Another suit still pending in federal court in Virginia centers on a facility called Keystone Marion Youth Center.
The facility, located in Marion, Va., is a residential treatment center for troubled boys with mental-health issues. The majority of patients come from states' child-welfare and juvenile-justice systems. The center promises stability, schooling, and clinically-approved therapies. It was also approved to accept Medicaid patients.
It did not have approval to perform an "exorcism."
But that is what appeared to be happening in an empty room at Marion in May 2007, according to a facility teacher who passed by the room, which was occupied by at least one nurse, a supervisor, a janitor and a boy with autism. Several in the room appeared to be hovering over the boy and praying, according to the teacher, who recounted the incident shortly after to Barbara Jones, the center's director of education at the time.
The severity of the boy's autism left him hardly able to speak and unable to walk on his own, Jones says.
"'They were trying to exorcise him. That's why he had the autism, he had a demon in him,'" Jones recounted what the teacher told her to The Huffington Post. "The cleaning lady was trying to cast out the demons."
The Marion Center repeatedly fell into trouble with authorities before and during the time Santorum served on the board. He resigned this past June to focus on his campaign. UHS facilities across the country -- from the former senator's home state of Pennsylvania to Illinois to Tennessee to Texas and Kansas -- have come under fire as well. Authorities have thrown around words like "systemic failure" to describe the UHS treatment centers and have sued them for millions in court settlements.
Santorum served on the UHS board's compensation committee and the nominating/corporate governance committee, which appear to play no direct role in overseeing hospital operations. But the board -- like any corporate board -- is responsible for maintaining oversight and making sure facilities are safe and do not violate the law. Bloomberg has reported that Santorum has made close to $400,000 off his relationship with UHS.
Santorum's campaign declined to comment, referring inquiries to UHS. But in an interview with Yahoo News this week, Santorum said that as a member of the board, he cooperated with the DOJ's Medicaid fraud investigation.
"Any investigation, you obviously engage and fully cooperate with it, and that's what we did. You try to get to the bottom of it. There's always accusations that take place and that's part of the responsibility of directors to make sure that we investigate that and get to the bottom of it," Santorum said. "I don't have any stock options. I did, but I exercised them and they're gone."
UHS issued a statement to The Huffington Post concerning the Marion Youth Center.
"There are hundreds of adolescents who have received high quality, successful care and treatment at Marion Youth Center," the company wrote in an email, "and have had their lives dramatically improved as a result of the efforts of the dedicated individuals that work at Marion."
The hospital chain responded directly to the exorcism charge, calling the allegations "absolutely false, libelous and knowingly untruthful."
A state report counters this claim and appears to back up Jones' recollections of the incident as relayed to her at the time, and its subsequent fallout. According to the report, state investigators noted that the Marion Youth Center initiated an internal investigation into the matter as well. An administrator with the facility reported to state investigators that staff had been caught "praying over" a boy. "Provider determined the youth did not give consent for the event to occur," the state investigation found. "One regulation violation was determined."
The most shocking thing about the incident, however, was that it didn't shock. As Jones says, "It didn't surprise me."
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