Ex-employee at Sonoma Developmental Center pleads no contest in sex abuse case

A former Sonoma Developmental Center psychiatric technician pleaded no contest Thursday to sexually abusing a disabled female resident over a yearlong period.

Rex Bradford Salyer, 63, was found guilty of having sexual intercourse with someone incapable of giving legal consent, two counts of oral copulation and abusing a dependent adult.

“This crime was especially egregious in that it involved the violation of a disabled individual,” District Attorney Jill Ravitch said.

The abuse happened sometime after Salyer was hired in May 2013 to work at the state facility in Sonoma Valley and continued until his arrest on July 4 of last year. Further details were not released.

He was free on $100,000 bail.

Salyer faced up to 12 years in prison if convicted as charged but settled his case on the morning of a scheduled preliminary hearing after Judge Jamie Thistlethwaite said she would “strongly consider” giving him the minimum three-year sentence.

The judge cited as her reasons his lack of a criminal record and a desire to prevent the 35-year-old victim from testifying.

Prosecutor Sharmalee Rajakumaran, who had offered an eight-year deal, said the low term was not appropriate for a person in a position of trust. Salyer was the victim’s direct caregiver and was privy to her vulnerabilities, she said.

Also, she said the victim, identified in court only as Jane Doe, was “ready and willing” to take the stand. The woman was asking for the longer punishment, Rajakumaran said.

“We are hopeful the court will consider everything in the probation report,” she said.

Salyer’s sentencing is set for Sept. 29.

A Sonoma Developmental Center spokesman could not be reached Thursday.

The Eldridge facility, which has nearly 400 developmental disabled residents, is targeted for closure.

In May, Gov. Jerry Brown unveiled a plan to shut it by 2018 and spend nearly $50 million to transition residents into community-based homes and programs. Two other centers, Fairview Developmental Center in Southern California and Porterville Developmental Center in the Central Valley, also are scheduled to be closed by 2021 under Brown’s plan.

The Sonoma center has been hit with allegations of abuse and patient neglect in recent years. Published reports in 2012 from California Watch, a project of the Center for Investigative Reporting, said 11 sexual assault reports were not investigated and hospital-supervised rape exams were not conducted in some cases.

In one instance, a Sonoma caregiver was cleared of assault and went on to molest a second patient. In another, state investigators didn’t act on a patient’s complaint against a staff member. Her pregnancy was overlooked for several months and she eventually gave birth to a child she cannot care for.

In previous reports, the investigative journalists exposed shoddy police work in a stun-gun assault case and the suspicious death of a patient.

State surveys in 2012 and 2014 found a range of problems at the center, including inadequate protection of clients from abuse and failure to keep accurate medical records and to follow proper medication protocols.

You can reach Staff Writer Paul Payne at 568-5312 or paul.payne@pressdemocrat.com.? On Twitter @ppayne.