AUSTIN - ***, founder of a rehabilitation program that KIDS of El Paso County Inc. is modeled after, defended KIDS' treatment methods in an Austin court Monday. He also testified that problems with the El Paso program have been corrected. "I believe (KIDS of El Paso County Inc.) is operating within our guidelines," *** said. The hearing in District Judge *** court is to determine whether the state should close KIDS. About 70 El Pasoans, mostly parents of KIDS patients, attended Monday's session of hearings that began Thursday, they were recessed. *** said testimony for and against KIDS will conclude today. The Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse recommended revoking KIDS' operating license for allegedly holding patients against their will, physically abusing patients and violating their civil rights. *** is founder of KIDS of America Inc. of which KIDS of El Paso County Inc. is an affiliate. There are two other KIDS rehabilitation centers in the United States. He said he agreed that some of the complaints needed correcting, including incidents of verbal abuse, which some patients referred to as "mocking out." He also said he disagreed with the use of restraint used once that involved several patients holding down a fellow patient for 12 consecutive hours. Two people had testified that at least two males were enrolled in KIDS to treat their homosexual tendencies. *** defended that treatment. "I don't believe sexual identity is fully formed before age 23. Most (adolescents) who think they are gay originally were seduced by older adults and are confused. It's correctable." During cross-examination by a state attorney, *** said he could not confirm whether a report submitted by KIDS of El Paso Inc. to the Texas Commission on Drug and Alcohol Abuse accurately reflected the number of successful program graduates. According to the KIDS report, 22 out of 200 patients, or 11 percent, who enrolled in the El Paso center in the past two years had completed the program. ***, clinical director of KIDS of El Paso Inc., testified Thursday that KIDS had a 70 percent success rate. ***, an attorney for the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, said during a break in the hearing that the report *** was asked to identify was the only indication the commission had of how well KIDS worked. ***, an El Paso mother who took her son out of KIDS, said she and other parents were made to be fearful about removing their children from the program. KIDS officials told parents their children would die if they left the program. "We were asked (once) to write an obituary on our child. I refused to write one. The purpose was so (parents) would understand that if our child was not here in the program, our child would be out in the streets and would die," *** said. *** said her son is diabetic and uses insulin, but that during his stay with KIDS, he was denied orange juice to prevent his blood sugar from reaching an unsafe level. *** had enrolled her son in KIDS, she said, because KIDS officials told her that her son "was a pathetic child who did not want to admit he was diabetic; that he accepted his drug compulsion and that we had to treat his diabetes the same way we treat his drug compulsion." *** said she removed her son from KIDS after finding he was not eating properly, had lost weight, and was not getting enough sleep. She also said she knew of other adolescents who did not receive prompt medical attention and who experienced violent confrontations with peers. ***, 18, testified that she and her sister, ***, physically restrained a patient who was being uncooperative. "I'd been punched and kicked a lot of times" and helped to physically restrain other patients. She said she was held in the program against her will when she was 18 until she ran away. *** said she retained El Paso lawyer *** to help her gain control of a $1 million trust her father had her sign over to him until she reached the age of 40. My father (***) set up an illegal trust for me," *** said. According to court documents filed with the El Paso district clerk, *** contested trust includes a will giving $200,000 to KIDS of El Paso County Inc. should she die. Her father and sister are expected to testify today in favor of KIDS. ***, a KIDS patient who criticized the program, said she and other patients were physically abused. "I had bruises all over my chest and neck," she said concerning one such incident. But her mother, ***, took the stand for the KIDS' defense and said her daughter was not being truthful about the KIDS program.
