PITTSBURGH -- Allegheny County oversees about 50 groups that receive $170 million a year to provide food and shelter for the mentally challenged. One of those groups is Grace Temple Church, whose pastor is Michael Fletcher.

Some of Fletcher's former clients told Team 4 that they were denied food and shelter, and we found that some people who were hired by Fletcher have criminal records.

The following investigative report by Team 4's Paul Van Osdol first aired Feb. 14, 2003, on WTAE Action News at 11 p.m.

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On Sundays, Michael Fletcher leads his congregation at Grace Temple church in East Liberty. The rest of the week, he is supposed to help a group of society's most vulnerable citizens -- the mentally retarded.

The county gives Fletcher $300,000 a year to provide food and shelter for retarded adults, but former employees and clients say they frequently got little to show for taxpayers' investment.

Shiree Johnson, former client: "You're locked in the basement."

Van Osdol: "Literally locked in the basement?"

Johnson: "Yes. All the doors was locked."

Johnson was a client of Fletcher's. She said she often had little if any food, forcing her and others to go begging in local restaurants.

Johnson: "Me and a couple other people that lived in the house took a shopping bag and filled it up with buns that people were leaving on the tables, because there was no food in the house except for dry cereal and a bottle of ketchup."

Former employee Tara Snowden says Fletcher was supposed to give caretakers money for food, but she never got any. She bought food for her clients out of her own pocket.

Snowden: "I've been in situations where clients would say, 'All we've had today was an egg.'"

Some of Fletcher's clients live at a home in Churchill, but most of them live elsewhere. Fletcher is supposed to pay their rent using county funds, but Team 4 learned it's not unusual for Fletcher's mentally retarded clients to be evicted -- kicked out on the street -- because he has not paid their rent.

That's what happened to former client Hattie Williams.

Williams: "We got locked out of the house in the rain."

Van Osdol: "You were locked out of the house because Fletcher hadn't paid the rent?"

Williams: "Yes."

Fletcher rented a house in Forest Hills from Daphne Miller. When he did not pay the rent for four straight months, she evicted him. That's when she found out Fletcher was not living there, but a mentally retarded woman and three children were.

Miller: "That's not a reverend's way of handling and providing stability -- at least, not in my viewpoint. It's not a human's way of handling stability for children and their families."

Court records show dozens of lawsuits against Fletcher, most of them for defaulting on contracts to buy or lease properties. Fletcher also filed for personal bankruptcy in 1998.

Team 4 has learned that some of Fletcher's employees have criminal backgrounds.

Eloy Binnon went to work for Fletcher several years after being convicted of smuggling drugs to inmates inside Western Penitentiary, where he worked as a guard.

Also working for Fletcher was Carolyn Freeman.

Freeman: "I have two assaults and some other things. I'm a four-time felon."

Freeman said Fletcher knew she had a criminal record when he hired her. She said he also knew one of her clients was the sister of Walter Little, the judge who sentenced her.

Freeman: "I was under house arrest when he hired me."

Van Osdol: "Should someone with your background have been working in a place like this?"

Freeman: "No. I knew that."

Little said he was shocked when he learned his sister was in Freeman's care and he immediately moved her out.

Freeman and Binnon were both fired after state officials learned they were on Fletcher's payroll.

Fletcher refused our repeated requests for an on-camera interview.

County officials say they have investigated Fletcher, but they refused to reveal the results of the investigation.

Donald Clark, Department of Human Services: "If it was a major issue, they would lose both the licensing and contract piece."

Van Osdol: "So you have no major issues with Grace?"

Clark: "Again, I think I can only speak to that they are currently licensed by the Office of Mental Retardation and we currently contract with them."

But after Team 4 shared the results of our investigation with county Controller Dan Onorato, he said he would launch his own investigation. He was especially concerned about Fletcher hiring people with criminal records.

Onorato: "There appears to be a breakdown in the system right from the start. I hope we can get to the bottom of why this happened because it shouldn't have happened, and you're really putting the client at risk here."

Williams: "I'm very disappointed at what he's done to the people who thought they was getting help. He betrayed my trust."

All of this raises a question: Who's minding the store? The state and the county are responsible for keeping an eye on groups like Fletcher's, and Fletcher is only a small part of the county Office of Mental Retardation's $170 million budget.

Onorato says there is a need for more oversight, especially since the total number of grants handled by the county has grown four-fold in the past decade.