Mayor Barlow opens public investigation regarding Pontiac Care & Rehab Center
Mayor Billy Barlow announced today an open investigation into the Pontiac Care & Rehabilitation Center in the City of Oswego. The Oswego Police Department will be accepting confidential public testimony, photographs, videos and other information from past and present employees, former residents, current residents and family members of former and current residents, to add to an on-going investigation relating to the Pontiac Care and Rehab Center.
Oswego Police Investigator Derek Jansson will lead the investigation. Employees, residents, individuals and families can call 315-342-8212 or email [email protected] . Investigator Jansson will also be available to for in-person or over the phone interviews. All collected information will be compiled, kept confidential and eventually turned over to state authorities and relevant state agencies.
“The horror stories surrounding the Pontiac Care & Rehab Center are too long to list and go back many, many years. From horrendous living conditions to the appalling and abusive treatment of residents, to the threats made to employees, it truly is a miracle the Pontiac is allowed to operate as normal,” said Mayor Billy Barlow. “If we can collect and compile information from the public on their personal experiences with this facility, and turn it over to authorities, we will significantly increase the likelihood that the state regulatory agencies will step up and take the appropriate actions that are so desperately needed, but I need the help of the public who have direct experiences with this facility”. Barlow continued by saying, “we have to be a voice for the voiceless, stand up for the vulnerable and I can’t allow this situation to continue in our community without trying to do something about it,” Barlow said.
The Pontiac Care & Rehabilitation Center has been the source of recent news created by an investigation by the State Attorney General’s Office and Oswego Police Department into a registered sex offender abusing other residents in the facility. In recent years, the Pontiac has dealt with criminal charges against employees and court settlements relating to the death of residents and in 2019 the building was cited for major building code violations, including rainwater running into buckets placed in the rooms of patients.
The Pontiac Care & Rehabilitation Center is located at 303 East River Road in Oswego.
