the 1990s through 2010s In the 1990s, after a teenage boy was found injured and lying in a pool of blood in a shower, a class-action lawsuit resulted in a settlement that stepped up the exodus of residents from developmental centers. 2000 citations In 2000, state health inspectors accused Sonoma of numerous violations that resulted in deaths. The state Department of Health Services has issued at least 15 citations, carrying penalties totaling $142,800.This includes an incident where a female staff member sexually fondled a male patient, and two instances in which staffers hit residents. Because of the state citations, as well as extensive inspection reports, the federal Health Care Financing Agency refused to recertify the center and moved to cut the flow of $3 million in monthly Medicaid dollars. These violations came less than three years after federal inspectors documented deaths and unsanitary conditions in California’s homes in 1997. One man died of an overdose of anti-depressants in 1999. The coroners could not tell whether the death was a homicide, suicide or accident. The hospital was cited for failure to prevent harm. Another incident was the 1999 death of a woman from toxic levels of opiates. In March of 2001, five employees were suspended during an investigation into abuse. One of these abuses were "beat down parties" where employees would choose a resident and assault them. Other cases included staff members humiliating and slapping residents. In August of 2001, a new bill required development centers to immediately report all resident "deaths and serious injuries of unknown origin" to their local law enforcement agency. This is after a 1999 investigation by the Index-Tribune found that:"the facility had hired inadequately trained, under-qualified, unsupervised investigators; that site administrators were called into incident scenes before investigators arrived; and that a conflict of interest existed because investigators were employed by the same facility they were supposed to investigate. Some employees within the facility indicated that many incidents were never reported, in part because staff members were afraid of retaliation."In April 2002, Nicholas Turley, a 14 year old, collapsed at Sonoma Developmental Center. He died at the hospital 37 hours later. Chief deputy coroner Will Wallman said toxicology results indicated that Turley died from an overdose of phenobarbital, a barbituate that is commonly used as a sedative and to control seizures. The lab report showed that Turley's system had 75 milligrams of phenobarbital per liter of