Wichita ? A residential care facility whose operators are accused of forcing mentally ill adults to work on their farm in the nude operated for years without regulatory oversight, despite a 1991 Kansas Supreme Court ruling that it had to be licensed.

Arlan Kaufman and his wife, Linda, both of Newton, were charged with involuntary servitude in a 1999 incident at their farm in a federal complaint unsealed Wednesday. On Thursday, questions remained as to why regulators did not act sooner.

The Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, the agency designated by Kansas law to investigate abuse of mentally ill adults, said the Kaufmans never requested a state license.

“SRS does not have any legal authority to go in and shut a place down; we are not a law enforcement agency. That is up to law enforcement,” said SRS spokesman Mike Deines.

After the Supreme Court ruled against the Kaufmans in 1991, they changed their operations so they would not have to obtain a residential care license, Deines said.

The Kaufmans have operated the Kaufman Treatment Center, also known as the Kaufman House Residential Group Treatment Center, since 1985, federal prosecutors said in the criminal complaint. Some 14 residents stayed at the center during that time.

Not licensed

An April 29 letter from SRS, obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday, told Assistant Atty. Gen. Betty Wright that the Kaufman homes were not licensed. The homes had at least five residents, a requirement for them to be subject to state regulations. But, SRS Deputy Director Candace Shively wrote, the facility apparently did not provide residential care, another requirement for the homes to be subject to licensing requirements.

“We wanted to inform you of our efforts and recognize our mutual frustrations in effecting a resolution to this dilemma within the constraints of the statutes and regulations,” Shively wrote.

The letter also said the agency’s Adult Protection Services division conducted an investigation in 2001 that resulted in the suspension of Arlan Kaufman’s social work license. That was the year 30 videotapes were seized of “nude therapy” sessions depicting Kaufman encouraging residents to masturbate in front of the group, among other sexual acts.

SRS shared the results of that investigation with the Office of Inspector General, which sent a report to the Harvey County attorney.

“At that time there was an expectation that criminal prosecution would occur which could have led to closure of the Kaufman residences and alternative placement of residents,” Shively wrote. “Regrettably, to our knowledge, nothing was done and the statute of limitations may now have expired.”

The county attorney did not return a call for comment Thursday.

SRS visited the home again in February but found no new indications of abuse or exploitation to justify a new investigation, the letter said.

On Tuesday, agents raided the two group homes, removed six residents and arrested the Kaufmans.

Kansas Atty. Gen. Phill Kline’s office learned of problems at the group home earlier this year and contacted a federal mental health advocacy group that ultimately got the residents removed from the home, said Whitney Watson, Kline’s spokesman.

Statute of limitations

Watson said the statute of limitations on the 2001 allegations had already run out when the Attorney General’s Office learned about them. The office contacted federal prosecutors and Kansas Advocacy and Protective Services, a federally funded organization.

Federal prosecutors charged the Kaufmans with involuntary servitude, which carries a five-year statute of limitations.

The Kaufmans are charged under a law that makes it illegal to hold or sell another person into “any condition of involuntary servitude,” which is prohibited by the 13th Amendment.

Rocky Nichols, executive director of Kansas Advocacy and Protective Services, said the group home would not have been shut down had Kline’s office not contacted his agency.

“If it weren’t for the report of abuse and neglect the attorney general gave our office, we never would have found out about it,” Nichols said. “It took the attorney general of this state reporting to our agency what was going on down there.”

That set off the investigation that allowed that agency to eventually remove all the residents, he said.

The mentally ill adults living at the home ranged in ages from their 40s to their 80s. Some had lived there for as few as five years, others more than 20 years, Nichols said.

“This has been hanging out there for over four years,” Nichols said. “There were a lot of people pulling their hair out on this. … Thankfully the federal government wanted to get justice done.”