Santa Rosa nonprofit ordered to pay $6M for in-home caregiver’s alleged abuse

A Santa Rosa-based in-home caregiving nonprofit was ordered to pay $6 million in a Sonoma County civil court earlier this week after a jury found they violated their own policies and left a developmentally disabled adult vulnerable to sexual assault that allegedly left him traumatized. 

Attorneys for the developmentally disabled man alleged the organization, Becoming Independent, violated its own policies around nepotism when they hired caregiver Andrew Martinez and put him under the supervision of his own aunt, who worked at the organization.