Monsey - State Reviewing Autistic Man's Climb To Hamaspik's Rooftop

Monsey - A state agency is looking into the case of a 22-year-old autistic man who climbed to the roof of a Hamaspik of Rockland group home Sunday evening.
Deborah Rausch, a spokeswoman with the state Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, declined to offer specifics about the matter, but said, "The safety and welfare of the people we serve is of utmost importance to us, so we're going to look into this."

Meyer Wertheimer, executive director of both Hamaspik of Rockland County and Hamaspik of Orange County — nonprofit agencies that run local facilities for the developmentally disabled — said last night that he was confident the group home's staff did nothing wrong. Wertheimer said the man, whom neither he nor police would identify, was not a resident of the home. He was there, Wertheimer said, with his mother on a visit to help determine if the home "would fit his needs."