Before Department of Developmental Services

My sister, Juliet Yellman, died, this summer in Sacramento, due to the abuse and neglect of the California Department of Developmental Services. She suffered terribly for 5 year. She died because her DDS caregivers were unvetted, unqualified, untrained, and left unsupervised.

Juliet was a truly incredible person. She was an amazing conversationalist. She was my true champion. She was the best aunt ever. She had an extremely sharp and creative sense of humor and could turn the most mundane situation into a hilarious short story that kept you on the edge of your seat. Juliet was extremely unique, and especially today, because of her genuine and keen interest in every person she met. She cared so deeply for others. Juliet has so many interests, including miniatures, architecture, animals, and current events. Oh yes, if you wanted to talk about what was going on in the world with someone informed, you would go talk to Juliet.

There were things Juliet couldn’t do. Her official diagnosis, Borderline Intellectual Functioning, meant that to live safely and successfully, she needed scaffolding. She needed the help that is guaranteed, by law, through California’s Lanterman Act and the Department of Developmental Services (DDS). That California legislation is supposed to ensure that persons with developmental disabilities get the support they need to meet their life’s goals, to work, integrate into community, participate in activities, lead a full life. Now, after her death, as I talk with other families who have loved ones with Developmental Delay, I am learning that they keep the DDS at a distance because the state agency is actually very dangerous to the population they are supposed to serve.

It was only a few years into her relationship with the DDS that it became obvious they were failing her. She was getting sick because they were not following her IPP, failing to et her to the doctor and other medical appointments. Failing to cook meals with her. She was diagnosed with malnutrition. She was becoming increasingly isolated and lonely. She had deep and serious sores on her body. It was 5 years of consistent worry about her situation, trying to draw attention to the harm being done through neglect. There were many complaints written to the DDS that they never addressed. Juliet was being subjected to incompetent and abusive treatment and it killed her. She thought she was doing what was expected of her to live her life independently. But by our standards, legal standards, they were failing to fulfill her IPP and she was in serious danger. The DDS demonstrated they did not care about Juliet’s IPP and had no intention of ensuring it was followed. The DDS took no interest in her welfare and took no responsibility.

The programs DDS purports to offer their intellectually disabled clients, (they call the individuals they serve “consumers”) are called Independent Living Skills and Supported Living Services. What these programs entail are listed on the DDS website. But, they don’t really exist. Once they get their hooks on your loved on, you soon realize the DDS is simply passing money to Regional Centers and they pass money to unqualified “vendors” who commandeer the individual’s allocated county IHSS hours to pay incompetent “staff”. There is no real program behind the curtain. The DDS showed no interest in what was actually happening to Juliet. The missed medication. The missed meals. No activities. Isolation from family. Juliet was a person who thrived on activity. They isolated her. Drugged her. They made her want to die. She gained no skills. She had nothing to look forward to. I would not let the DDS caregivers feed my cats. That level of responsibility is too high for them. These DDS caregivers most probably cannot work anywhere else.

But by the time you realize what is actually going on with this agency, your loved one is too affected, too fearful and anxious to advocate or speak up. Like any victim, these individuals are not in a safe place where they can explain what is happening and the way they are being treated. My sister once told me, “Why would I even cry. No one cares.” As their loved one, you can easily see and testify to the damage they do. As can their doctors. DDS and these caregivers withhold medical visits because doctors and other professionals document their concerns, in writing. Medical notes dated and signed. UC Davis documented Juliet’s neglect and abuse, their concerns about these caregivers. But only when she was allowed to see them.

And on June 10th, 2025, Juliet’s DDS caregivers, knowing she needed medical help, waited 30 hours to call 911. I can hear her voice on the 911 recording, over and over. She was desperate for their help. My dear, loving, special sister experienced so much neglect in this program that she had gone blind, she was bedridden from broken bones, and she could not call 911 for herself. But did the DDS caregivers call anyone? Did they call me? Did they call her doctors? No, the caregiver sat outside Juliet’s bedroom as she struggled in and out of consciousness, and until it was too late to save her life. Her death was not a gentle, loving death. In fact it was the death she feared the most. Intubation. Someone shoving a tube down your throat. The Sutter Doctor, knowing Juliet had been without oxygen for 30 minutes, someone got her heart going again. And those doctors ever told me, “She is going to be okay”. It was so obvious to me, her body twitching and convulsing, the way she looked. She was dead. And she died in a tortured way, twisted, anxious, alone, and in pain. She did not have to die that day. That was the choice of the DDS.

Many people complained to the DDS about the dangerous care Juliet was experiencing. Many emails were sent, a lot of documentation. It was all ignored. The DDS is now rewarded for the death they caused. They have one less client to support. They have less work to do. They will get fewer emails and complaints from those who deeply cared about Juliet. The DDS is better off now that Juliet is out of their way, of their client roll. Having had a client die in their care, don’t you think the DDS would investigate the situation that led to Juliet’s death? Request the email evidence of neglect from her case managers and administrators? No. Why would they investigate? They would have to look at the evidence. Why would they care now that she is dead when they clearly did not care when she was alive.

Those working for the DDS and for these Regional Centers know exactly what they are doing. They know exactly how to manipulate and prey on their vulnerable clients, like my sister, Juliet. They frighten them, threaten them, isolate them, and silence them. Once your loved one is in the DDS system, because of the psychological abuse tactics, it is nearly impossible to extract them. This is a key feature of their work and important for any family considering using DDS services. Their job is to lower case loads and not to keep people alive and healthy. And consider the experiences of clients who are conserved vs. those who are not. Clients who are not conserved will suffer and die much quicker in DDS programs. Why? Because the DDS believes that when a person is not conserved, no one cares. And so, no one will notice when they die. Juliet was not conserved.

DDS claims to support 450,000 developmentally delayed persons in California. Where are their clients? Who are they? The DDS does not know. They bribe organizations to produce fraudulent reports on the quality of their services. The data they use is seriously flawed in incorrectly reported. They ask paid caregivers, the same people doing the harm, to report the qualify of life factors for the individual for whom they are supposed to be serving. HA! What a racket they have going. Reports are not valid because the data is not generalizable and does not represent what is actually happening in these programs. And those reports are read by the state legislatures for funding decisions. There is a very clear pyramid scheme in place that includes 21 Regional Centers across the state funded by the DDS. Together with the vendors, they all protect the system that is so dangerous to individuals in these programs. And DDS administrators, knowing this is happening, look the other way.

We, the people, need accountability from the DDS. Accountability for the quality of their programs that our tax dollars fund. We need change to ensure safety for the most vulnerable people in our communities. We know there are problems. We know this: https://information.auditor.ca.gov/pdfs/reports/2021-107.pdf And yet, where is the measurable response that protects the people being harmed in the DDS programs. I ask all of us in California, especially those in positions of leadership, to dig deep into your place of empathy and to consider what it is like for families to watch a vulnerable loved one suffer and die because of a truly corrupt, dysfunctional, and downright immoral state agency, the Department of Developmental Services. Consider what it is like to watch your loved one suffer as Juliet did, and how this shapes every day that follows you, the dark cloud that follows you.

My sister was a bright star. Any person who had the pleasure of knowing her, laughing with her, learning from her, quickly understood what an incredible heart and mind she had. She did not deserve to be tortured alive. She did not deserve to be treated as she was. She did not deserve the pain and suffering she had to endure because of the California State Department of Developmental Services. I urge the good people of California to engage in this issue. The abuse and neglect of vulnerable persons is taking place right in our communities and it is paid for by our tax dollars.

Following the shock and deep grief of losing my sister, Juliet, I vow not to forget how she died, to organize, speak, and share her life with others, her story, and find those who have other important experiences to share. Including clients of the DDS who must be out there. 450,000 of them. Please reach me if you want to talk. My sister mattered. You matter. Your experience matters. We can affect real change as a community of advocates who know how much the clients mean to us and how they deserve to be treated. You can send me an email at jenny@zoeval.com and I will post information on my YouTube channel www.youtube.com/@zoeticevaluation. We have 261 subscribers already, and we are just beginning. Justice for Juliet.

Thank you for reading. God bless you and your family.

Jenny Quynn/ Jennifer Quynn, Ph.D.

Sacramento, CA 95820

jenny@zoeval.com

After Department of Developmental Services