State lawmakers peppered Department of Human Services higher-ups with questions at a committee meeting on Wednesday.
This comes months after the state released a 148-page report on the death of a Human Development Center resident. HDCs are state-run facilities housing disabled people — the death happened in September 2025.
After the death, thirteen people were fired from a HDC in Warren, and six were charged with manslaughter. The resident's family was given $725,000 in a settlement from the state of Arkansas.
21-year-old Zachary Moore was severely disabled with autism and a rare chromosomal disorder called 9P Syndrome. While living as a HDC resident, Moore was restrained and sedated. On the day of his death, he was physically restrained after biting a staff member. He was restrained face-down.
Melissa Weatherton, Director of Specialty Medicaid Services for DHS, says HDC employees are “trained not to put people in that type of restraint.”
Once Moore was restrained, a nurse made the controversial decision to inject him with a chemical sedative. The nurse is known only as RN #7 in the reports. Over text, RN #7 falsely told the Psychiatric Advanced Practice Registered Nurse, or PAPRN #21, that Moore was in a humane wrap. PAPRN #21 ordered the sedative under the false information.
When asked they injected Moore with a sedative, RN #7 said:
“I am just doing what I am told to do, and if we get an order, then we are required to give the medication.”
The death comes after a 2023 report into conditions at state Human Development Centers alleged starvation, poor sanitation and neglect of residents. A 2020 death at an HDC resulted in a legal judgment against the state.
Wednesday, DHS officials expressed condolences to Moore's family, but struggled to answer simple questions posed by lawmakers, including remembering Moore's cause of death and whether the thirteen terminated employees had been trained on restraint protocols.
Multiple times, DHS officials said they hired consultants to create a “directed plan of correction,” but struggled to say what that looks like in practice.
Jennifer Brezée, the Director of the Division of Developmental Disabilities Services said “100%” of deaths at HDCs are investigated and reported. She said DHS has a committee that looks into standards of care involving resident deaths.
Mid meeting, Weatherton jumped in to help Brezée, who she said was “getting nervous.” Her answers only seemed to reiterate Brezée's adamance that general bureaucratic steps had been made.
Republican Rep. Howard Beaty said it seemed like DHS officials were baffled by simple questions.
“You can say you're sorry,” he said. “And you can try to say the right things, but in the end, you're not even prepared for this meeting. I don't even know why we're asking questions.”
He suggested DHS officials take the restraint training so “folks could understand that holding someone upside down for 13 minutes is unacceptable.”
Moore's mother Angela Stephens Moore ended the meeting with emotional testimony:
“I’m here because the next Zachary that is in the facility right now is not safe,” she said.
