FARMINGTON – The Maine Human Rights Commission voted to adopt an investigator’s recommendation that there is reasonable grounds Rumford Group Homes unlawfully discriminated against a Phillips man after he reported suspected abuse to state authorities.

The rights panel made the decision Monday in the case of Greg Simoneau of Phillips v. Rumford Group Homes of Rumford after no written objections were filed to the investigator’s findings, commission Executive Director Patricia Ryan said Tuesday.

The case will go now to the conciliatory officer to try and work out an agreement between the two sides. If that doesn’t work, the commission could decide to file a lawsuit, Ryan said.

State field investigator Robert D. Beauchesne reviewed the facts in the case and found that Rumford Group Homes violated the state’s Whistleblowers Protection Act when they disciplined and fired Simoneau after he reported suspected child abuse to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, according to his report submitted to the commission.

Simoneau had been a program director for the agency’s Transition House Program, a residential facility in Rumford that serves adolescent boys as they transition into the community from institutional living. He was fired in 2006.

Simoneau filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission shortly after he was fired.

He believed he was disciplined and then terminated because he had reported suspected child abuse and neglect to DHHS, according to the investigator’s report.

However, Rumford Group Homes’ response was that Simoneau “was terminated due to his poor performance including lack of documentation and lack of holding staff accountable” and not because of his reporting two incidents of alleged child abuse – staff members yelling at children – to DHHS before a supervisor was alerted, the investigator’s report stated.

Rumford Group Homes had previously denied allegations through the agency’s attorney, Michael Messerschmidt.

“Rumford Group Homes strongly disagrees with the commission’s finding and absolutely rejects any allegations of discrimination,” Messerschmidt said Tuesday.

Simoneau’s attorneys, Peter Thompson and Chad Hansen, were unavailable for comment.