Umair
There, he said, he was “a troubled child” who was regularly beaten and, over time, drugged and sexually abused by medical staff members. He said he was at MacLaren until he was about 11, when he was sent to a group foster home, which he fled.
For years after that, he said, he lived on the street. Eventually, he said, he landed in prison after being convicted of attempted murder; he said it was an attempt at self-defense. There, he said, he reflexively attacked anyone who hinted at a sexual interaction, even jokingly.
After his release in 2013, he said, he found work selling solar panels and vinyl windows door to door, then driving a forklift, then driving a big rig. He lives now in the Los Angeles suburb of Covina, about 15 minutes from the complex that once housed MacLaren.
His wife, Esther, said that when she met him, her only goal was “to show this broken man that somebody could actually love him.” Over time, they said, they built a good life. In the cab of his truck, he said, he finds peace, listening to country music, rumbling from freeway to freeway.
“Still, to this day, I can’t go to the dentist without my wife holding my hand. I can’t go to a doctor. I’m 42 years old and I can’t get a checkup,” he said. Worse, he fears that when his children find out what happened to him, they’ll reject him.
