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Bad circumstances’ claimed teen
Caleb
Jensen - Main page
August 26, 2008
By Katharhynn Heidelberg
MONTROSE — A Utah teen who died on
a Montrose-based wilderness outing was delirious and in evident pain
for days prior, recently unsealed documents indicate.
Caleb Jensen, 15, died of a staph
infection while participating in an Alternative Youth Adventures
Colorado program in Montrose County May 2, 2007. Indictments
alleging child abuse, negligent homicide and manslaughter were
handed down against two companies and three men this July.
In court Monday, Colleen Scissors,
attorney for Community Education Centers, called for grand jury
testimony to be released, in addition to other discovery already
available.
“The heart of the case is the grand
jury testimony and that’s what we’re waiting for,” Colleen Scissors
said.
The state of Colorado contends the
infection that killed Jensen produced observable symptoms which AYA
and its staff failed to treat. It suspended AYA’s license.
Representatives for New
Jersey-based Community Education Centers Inc., which does business
under the name AYA, said previously the underlying cause of Jensen’s
death was undetectable.
The company, with AYA Colorado
Inc., Dr. Keith Hooker and James Omer, were indicted on felony child
abuse resulting in death and criminally negligent homicide. A third
man, AYA wilderness EMT Ben Askins, was indicted on felony child
abuse resulting in death and manslaughter.
Scissors said Monday that CEC’s
Alternative Youth Adventures is distinct from the registered
corporation, Alternative Youth Adventures of Colorado Inc., owned by
Omer.
Community Education Centers does
business as Alternative Youth Adventures, Scissors said, but it was
AYA Colorado Inc., not her client’s dba of a similar same name, that
was indicted by a grand jury in Jensen’s death.
Scissors said she didn’t want to
create a situation in which her client’s corporate officers could be
accused of failing to appear on AYA Colorado’s case.
“All I know is he’s dead and I’m
waiting for justice to happen,” Caleb’s father, Joel Jensen, of
Glenwood Springs, told the Daily Press after court Monday. “He died
under bad circumstances.”
According to Askins’ indictment,
Caleb was not sick before participating in the program’s outing on
Little Red Mountain.
He noted a small blister on his
ankle April 23, 2007. Within a day, he wrote in a journal that he
was “burning up, vomiting and having trouble hiking.”
The pain spread to his knee and
hip, but when Askins examined him April 26, vital signs weren’t
taken, the indictment alleged. Caleb received Ibuprofin and Askins
then returned to base camp, according to the document.
The situation turned dire the
following day, when Caleb could no longer control his bodily
functions.
The indictment states AYA
considered Caleb a “defiant” group member and separated him from the
others, while also placing him on suicide watch.
“Staff felt that Caleb was faking
his discomfort,” the indictment said.
For the next few days, other
clients in the program expressed concern for Caleb’s condition,
stating that he hadn’t moved from his sleeping area and was “going
really crazy.”
“Several students felt Caleb should
have been seen by a doctor,” the document stated.
He continued to receive Ibuprofin
and an over-the-counter anti-diarrhea medicine.
Staffers noted he was talking to
people who weren’t there April 29, the same day that he laid out in
the sun most of the day, despite the availability of shade.
On May 1, 2007, a staffer noted
Caleb hadn’t eaten for 24 hours. She helped him drink some water.
“Several calls were made to the
base camp during the time period of April 29 - May 2, reporting
Caleb Jensen’s condition to EMT Ben Askins, Jim Omer and other AYA
staff; no staff from base camp responded and no additional
medication was sent or authorized for Caleb Jensen,” the indictment
read.
Staff found him unresponsive the
afternoon of May 2, 2007; they called for Life Flight. Caleb was
pronounced dead at the scene of what was later determined to be
disseminated methicillin-resistant staph infection. Symptoms include
joint swelling, delirium, loss of appetite, fever and loose stools.
Joel Jensen said he’d had little
contact with Caleb in the years preceding the teen’s death. He said
he learned of the incident when his sister called him.
“When I found out, it just really
tore me up,” Jensen said.
Jensen said Caleb told AYA
counselors he was sick, but they didn’t believe him. “They basically
said he was whining and trying to get out of the program. Ten
minutes later, he was dead.”
He said he was not impressed with
what he understood about wilderness therapy programs. “They
(parents) think they’re giving their kids some help, and it (serious
incidents) happens all the time. If we don’t speak up against it,
it’s never going to stop,” Jensen said.
Jensen said he plans to attend all
court hearings, even if it means moving to Montrose.
The district attorney’s office was
given 20 days to respond to motions filed by Scissors and the
hearings for CEC and AYA Colorado were re-set to Sept. 29.
Askins is also set for Sept. 29 and
Hooker is due in court Oct. 6.
The Montrose Combined Courts did
not have a date listed for Omer.
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