Psychotherapist sentenced in personal care home abuse case

COBB COUNTY, Ga. - Cobb County Superior court Judge LaTain Kell sentenced an Atlanta psychotherapist to 30 years, 10 to be served in prison, for exploiting and abusing mentally handicapped clients.

Jury found Dr. Sheila Hawkins guilty of 16 charges related to operating an unlicensed personal care home where people were abused, neglected, or exploited.

The FOX 5 I-Team exposed the conditions of the unlicensed home earlier this year and interviewed two of the men who lived in what prosecutors call “squalid” conditions.

At least, three different disabled men lived in a dark, smelly basement on Windy Hill road. There was no heat or air, food under lock and key, and an open air toilet.

Earlier this summer, Cobb county assistant DA Jason Marbutt successfully prosecuted Helen Bell, the woman who ran the unlicensed personal care home.

Then, he convinced a jury that Ms. Bell’s daughter, Dr. Sheila Hawkins was also part of the scheme.

Marbutt argued to the jury that Dr. Hawkins, who ran Serene Reflections therapeutic center, sent a stream of her own clients to live at her mother's home - knowing it was unlicensed and unlivable.

“She shirked her responsibility,” Marbutt told the jury, “she closed her eyes to what was right in front of her face, then comes her and says I didn't know.”

During Thursday’s sentencing, Dr. Hawkins and a string of co-workers, clients, church members, and family pleaded for leniency.

Dr. Hawkins apologized for the conditions of her mother’s home.

“The conditions they lived in,” Hawkins told the judge, “the neglect, that whole thing, it’s beyond deplorable.

But to the bitter end, Dr. Hawkins insisted she had no idea, even though her staff often visited her clients at her mother’s home.

But Judge Kell wasn’t buying it. He told the 54-year-old former Atlanta Police Officer, “Make no mistake about it, you helped to keep those 3 men in that dungeon of a basement.”

Kell sentenced Dr. Hawkins to 30 years, 10 to be served in prison. Dr. Hawkins will also have to pay a $100,000 fine when she gets out of prison.

Her supporters expressed disappointment, but prosecutor Jason Marbutt told us, “For Sheila Hawkins to come in, even to this late hour and say I didn't know. It’s absurd. It's absurd.”