A federal judge has set a July 25 hearing over whether St. Joseph County officials are breaking the law by shutting down the Portage Manor home for the poor and disabled.
The lawsuit has been filed by four Portage Manor residents and seeks class action status to add more. Their attorney, Kent Hull, recently added the state of Indiana as a defendant.
U.S. District Judge Damon Leichty (LICK tee) will hear evidence from both sides before ruling on whether to grant the residents’ request for a preliminary injunction. An injunction would immediately stop the county from moving out any more residents until the case can be heard.
County commissioners have said the state has approved their plan to close Portage Manor by July 31 but many have already been moved out. Hull said he didn’t want to speculate on whether an injunction, if granted, would require the county to return displaced residents to Portage Manor.
They include two people who were moved to Miller Beach Terrace, a converted nursing home in Gary, a day after a resident there shot another resident, causing injuries that reportedly weren’t life-threatening.
“These residents were sent to a facility that was a converted motel,” Hull said. “Why such a facility has ever been certified by the state of Indiana is unclear to me. And secondly, why Portage Manor would have chosen to send them to that particular facility is also unclear to me. I think that needs to be made clear to the court.”
County Commissioners President Carl Baxmeyer did not return WVPE’s request for comment.
