A former Chicago mental health counselor has been accused of abusing five boys, ages 7 to 14, when he worked at Hartgrove Behavioral Health Hospital, Cook County prosecutors announced Monday.

The prosecutors have accused Edmund Rivers, 68, of sexually abusing the children at the West Side hospital between 1996 and 2004.

Rivers began working at the hospital in 1993 and worked directly with minor patients, allowing him to abuse the victims at several locations at the facility, including patient rooms, a bathroom and a gym equipment room, prosecutors said.

According to prosecutors, the children did not know each other, but each said Rivers allegedly threatened to sedate them with a syringe if they resisted.

Several of the victims went to the police after learning about a civil lawsuit, fi

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