Caregiver arrested in ongoing Helping Hands investigation, alleged abuse reported Monday

By Adam Rife

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    MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (WDJT) — A caregiver at the Helping Hands group home was arrested Thursday, Sept. 21, for abusing a resident.

But this incident was reported on Monday. It is not the assault that was caught on camera and reported earlier this summer.

47-year-old Avery L. Davis was taken into custody Thursday at District 6 Police headquarters. MPD said the battery he’s accused of committing was reported Monday.

Neighbors were stunned to hear that after all their efforts to stop suspected abuse, another incident may have occurred.

“An employee of a group home battered a resident” is how MPD described the open investigation.

Additional police documents show Davis was arrested for the “intentional abuse of a patient.”

It’s the latest domino to fall in a months-long investigation into alleged widespread abuse at an adult group home run by the company Helping Hands.

Back on July 9, a neighbor filmed a caregiver hitting Steven, a 31-year-old man who is severely autistic and nonverbal.

The video and ensuing protest set off a chain reaction that sparked an investigation by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

A co-owner of Helping Hands told us earlier this month they fired the caregiver and reported him to authorities as soon as they saw the video.

DHS declined to answer specific questions about the case, saying the investigation into the July 9 video is ongoing.

We asked the District Attorney’s office if Avery L. Davis -the man arrested Thursday- was also the person being investigated for the assault on the video.

The DA’s office said, “there’s a recent referral for a date of incident of 7/9/23 that is currently under review.”

This week we reported more than 80 calls for service have been made to the embattled group home over the past few years. 18 of them were for battery since June of 2021. Monday’s incident that led to the arrest would be the 19th battery incident, at least.

Frustrated neighbors have tried to help.

One wishing to remain anonymous told us, “We see the residents are not treated with dignity and respect.”

For weeks they’ve told us caregivers would get in fights with each other and they would routinely abuse the residents.

And it was not just one alleged abuser. The caregiver arrested Thursday is a man. Several neighbors also claim a female worker abused a resident this Easter Sunday.

The neighbor said, “I saw the worker throw the resident against the car. Had her hands around her neck. And that’s when my husband said, ‘I’m calling the police.'”

She said police responded immediately. And she also told us that in a subsequent community meeting the owners of Helping Hands blamed the incident on being short staffed, and said the woman had her license taken away.

While we were talking to neighbors, two men pulled up to the group home and started bagging trash in the driveway. But they refused to answer any questions, and claimed to not know who sent them to clean up the home.

Alderman Mark Borkowski represents the district where the group home is located.

He has scheduled a community meeting for this coming Monday, Sept. 25th to discuss the ongoing issues. In the notice to neighbors, Borkowski wrote he hopes to have a representative from a state health agency present at that meeting.

DHS told us it cannot comment on what -if any- actions have been taken against Helping Hands, citing an ongoing investigation.

Christopher Kloth, the attorney representing Helping Hands, did not respond to multiple calls and emails for comment or an interview.

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