DES MOINES, Iowa - Governor Kim Reynolds says her office did not know about human experimentation at Glenwood Resource Center until a Federal investigation over patients' rights violations began in November.
Reynolds fielded questions Tuesday at the state capitol after emails released Monday revealed that state administrators knew about, and signed off on human experiments of intellectually disabled people at the facility a year-and-a-half earlier.
The emails show Department of Human Services (DHS) mental health and disability services administrator Rick Shults approved a software request in May of 2018 for studies on patients.
Shults resigned in January. Reynolds says Shults wasn't fired because an investigation into his actions was still in progress.
The federal Justice department investigation into activities at Glenwood center on whether patients were inappropriately used as human subjects for studies involving sexual arousal and pneumonia.
Reynolds said Tuesday that an increase in deaths at state run Glenwood was one reason she asked former DHS Director director Jerry Foxhoven to resign.
The governor said she'd welcome the involvement of some state lawmakers, who have asked for oversight hearings after the rise in deaths and the use of body restraints at the facility.
Glenwood houses roughly 200 intellectually and physically disabled people.