Carlton Palms client charged with assault

A client at the soon-to-be-closed Carlton Palms Education Center in Lake County was arrested Tuesday on a warrant charging him with assaulting an employee of a statefunded residential care facility.

Christopher Paul McMahon, 21, described in an arrest affidavit as having “mental disabilities,” threatened an employee of the Carlton Palms with a butcher knife he snatched from a kitchen drawer, according to a sworn statement by Lake County sheriff’s detective Clay Watkins.

McMahon is accused of raising the knife over his head, chasing the worker into a living area and threatening, “I’m going to kill you,” according to the affidavit. He also blocked the room exit with a couch, according to witnesses who took the knife from him.

McMahon seized the knife after breaking open a kitchen drawer.

State authorities are in the process of shuttering Carlton Palms in the wake of repeated abuse allegations, which include the deaths of two autistic people in separate incidents at the care facility in five years, located in a rural setting south of Mount Dora.

The facility is Florida’s largest residential home for disabled persons.

Many residents there also exhibit challenging behavioral disorders.

Deputies took McMahon to the LifeStream Behavioral Center in Leesburg, where he was restrained, a sheriff ’s report said.

He was later transferred to the Lake County Jail.

The alleged charge of aggravated assault is a third-degree felony.

Craig Cook, appointed by a judge in May to manage Carlton Palms and its disabled clients, declined to comment, citing healthcare privacy rules. He referred inquiries to the supervising state Agency for Persons with Disabilities.

Cook is executive director of Attain, an Orlando nonprofit that provides residential care for people with developmental disabilities such as autism and Down syndrome.

Melanie Etters, a spokeswoman for the state Agency for Persons with Disabilities, said in an email she could not provide details about a “specific APD customer” without a waiver of federal confidentiality rules.

The agency has responsibility for 67 people at Carlton Palms awaiting transition to new homes.

“In general, some individuals with developmental disabilities also suffer from mental health issues,” Etters said. “When an individual threatens harm or are a danger to themselves or others, they are Baker Acted until the crisis subsides. If the individual commits a crime during an episode, they may face legal charges.”

She said the agency may work with the law enforcement to have charges dismissed to get the individual back into their home and usual routine, if possible.

The Baker Act — named for former state Rep. Maxine Baker, who sponsored the legislation that created the mental health law in 1972 — allows for the temporary, emergency and usually involuntary commitment of a person for the safety of the person or others.

There must be evidence that the person possibly has a mental illness.