AUSTIN - Police and Child Protective Services are investigating a teenager's report of abuse at Houston's Child and Adolescent Development Inc., where she says she was locked naked in an attic isolation room, fed only bread and water and denied sanitary napkins.

A 16-year-old girl now living at a foster care facility in Brazoria County said last week that she had witnessed bathroom beatings with metal hangers and other degrading practices while living at the Houston residential treatment center, said the mother of another foster child who is friends with the girl.

"I felt morally obligated to get someone in there to talk to her besides myself," said Elain Philpott, adding the girl had approached her at Daystar Residential Inc. treatment center last week in Manvel and pleaded for her help. It is not yet known when the alleged abuse took place or for how long.

Director Beryl Shorter [Grady], who has denied numerous abuse allegations concerning the Houston facility (CADI) in the past, refused comment Tuesday when asked about the most recent allegation.

"I am not going to make any more comments," she said. "I don't know what you're talking about. I suggest you speak to CPS."

The Houston facility was among foster care centers strongly criticized in state Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn's "Forgotten Children" report published last spring.

Philpott's 15-year-old daughter, Kristen Turner, suffered a broken hip at the Houston center in March 2003, claiming a staffer had thrown her down a flight of stairs. Police said they could not substantiate the allegation and no charges were filed. Her mother said Turner will soon undergo her fifth hip surgery at Texas Children's Hospital. {Allowing the ex-con, Genesis Black, to work with other children at facilities that do not do a criminal background check}

Philpott reported the 16-year-old's allegations on Friday and Monday to the CPS abuse hot line, the Houston Police Department's juvenile division and state Rep. Carlos Uresti of San Antonio, chairman of the House Human Services Committee.

"I don't know how valid what she's saying is, but it's enough to raise major red flags," said Philpott.

In an e-mail sent to Uresti's office Friday, Philpott said the 16-year-old also said some staffers at the Houston facility had forced children to spit in each other's food and sometimes made them urinate or defecate on an object, possibly a cushion.

The girl told Philpott that when the children reported incidents to licensing investigators or the police, "nothing was done and nobody would listen."

Both CPS and the police confirmed they have assigned investigators and will travel to Manvel to interview the teen.

Juvenile Sgt. Doug Foster said a patrol unit was dispatched to the Houston center Friday after Philpott's abuse hot line call. Now, he said a police investigator from Houston will travel to interview the 16-year-old.

"I assigned it to an investigator. He just got it this morning," Foster said. "He'll just have to drive down there."

Geoff Wool, spokesman at the Department of Family and Protective Services, which oversees CPS, said a residential child care licensing investigator will look into the allegations.

"The beatings with the metal hanger — that's something we had not heard before," he said. "If we get allegations from a client in a facility and those allegations meet the statutory definition of abuse or neglect, we will investigate those."

Daystar Director Cal Sall confirmed that Philpott had told him last week about the girl's allegations. "I can just tell you in general when we have knowledge that there's been a traumatic event, then we deal with it in a therapeutic manner, and that would be with the child's individual counselor," he said.

Sall said he had encouraged Philpott to contact the hot line and that Uresti had urged her to file a police report as well.

"I felt sure the investigators would come out here because the person who made the report is here," Sall added.

polly.hughes@chron.com