A little after 8 a.m. Monday, Alicia Johnson had set up a cooler with water and a stack of signs with sayings like “They won’t believe you but we do” outside the Garfield County Courthouse. 

Johnson, an Enid resident, organized a protest for two weeks after the Garfield County District Attorney’s Office dropped criminal charges against former Robert M. Greer Center staff. The former staffers were accused of caretaker abuse, including beating and choking residents with intellectual and developmental disabilities. But the local prosecutor voluntarily dismissed the cases because the state couldn’t find one key witness, according to court documents. 

Johnson wants the criminal cases to be refiled, she said, as people paused to peek at her stack of handmade signs while on their way into the courthouse. 

“We have to keep attention on this so it’s not just forgotten,” said Johnson, who doesn’t have a personal connection to the Greer cases but works in the medical field.

The group of a dozen or so former staff and family members who joined in the protest on Monday said they believe more can be done, including finding additional witnesses or relying on the Greer Center residents themselves to describe their own alleged abuse. 

The local district attorney’s office had requested accommodations for two alleged victims in the courtroom, but it’s unclear what those accommodations would have been. The individuals would have testified at the preliminary hearing, court filings show. In many cases, the justice system doesn’t see people with intellectual or developmental disabilities as reliable witnesses to describe their own alleged abuses, according to the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. 

“Just because you’re intellectually disabled doesn’t mean you can’t say ‘Someone hurt me,’” said Lesia Foerster, a counselor in the area who attended the protest. Foerster works with people with intellectual or developmental disabilities. 

Ross Leonoudakis, an attorney for families suing the private, for-profit company that manages the Greer Center, said the district attorney’s office didn’t call the clients he represents to help with the criminal cases. 

“People don’t feel like they were heard,” Leonoudakis said. “That is what today is about.” 

The district attorney’s office did not respond to requests for comment. 

There are multiple civil cases pending against Liberty of Oklahoma, the company that manages the Greer Center. A former staffer is suing the company for emotional damages, and eleven plaintiffs are part of a separate lawsuit against the company for negligence. Liberty of Oklahoma and its parent company Liberty Healthcare have denied the allegations. A second former staffer filed a lawsuit earlier this month to also sue the company for negligence. The state continued to cite the Greer Center throughout the beginning of 2024 for delayed reports of alleged abuse and other infractions.