Man sued over Iowa sexual arousal study ran Kansas facility

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A child psychologist facing a federal lawsuit in Iowa stemming from sexual arousal experiments he oversaw on residents at a state care center for people with intellectual disabilities conducted similar research in Kansas while running one of its state hospitals.

The Kansas agency that oversees the state's hospitals says its initial investigation of sexual arousal research involving Jerry Rea in Kansas suggests that ethics guidelines and proper protocols were followed. Rea was superintendent of the Parsons State Hospital and Training Center for people with intellectual disabilities in southeastern Kansas from October 2004 until September 2017.

Rea then became superintendent of the Glenwood Resource Center in southwestern Iowa but was fired at the end of last year amid a federal investigation of the facility. Six former employees filed the federal lawsuit Monday, alleging that they were fired or forced to resign because they questioned Rea's activities.

Cara Sloan Ramos, spokeswoman for the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, said once the Kansas agency learned of the allegations from news reports in early December, “we proactively and immediately began an internal review” of the Parsons hospital's “history of research conducted on sexual arousal.”

She said the Parsons hospital "is not currently engaged in research related to sexual arousal and no sexual arousal data has been collected" there since Rea’s departure.

“Providing a safe, healthy environment for residents to succeed and applying the highest standards of patient care have always been the foundational focus and mission of the hospital,” she said in an email.

The Iowa lawsuit alleges that Rea used “highly vulnerable” patients with intellectual disabilities in his research, without prior permission...