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Youth center already under
investigation faces new complaint
August 28, 2007
A 13-year-old boy who was in the
care of the Chad Youth Enhancement Center in Montgomery County was
taken to the hospital on Monday as a victim of sexual assault.
The facility for troubled youth
already is under investigation after 17-year-old Omega Leach, of
Philadelphia, died there in June when Chad staff physically
restrained him, pushing him face-down to the floor.
Investigators are trying to find
out whether Leach was restrained improperly, preventing him from
breathing.
It was the second death there in as
many years. The Tennessee Department of Children's Services stopped
sending children to Chad after 14-year-old Linda Regina Harris
collapsed and died of heart failure after a confrontation with staff
in September 2005.
The Montgomery County Sheriff's
Office is investigating the sexual assault complaint, but spokesman
Ted Denny would not provide specific information about it.
Staff at Chad referred calls to a
corporate office in Nashville where officials could not immediately
be reached.
A Pennsylvania judge earlier this
month began removing children from the facility.
At the time of Leach's death, 44 of
the center's 85 residents were from Philadelphia, which has paid
Chad $6 million in the last three years.
Chad is a privately owned 90-bed
residential facility that specializes in rehabilitating mentally
disturbed youth between the ages of 8 and 18. Located about 40 miles
west of Nashville, it is owned by Universal Health Services Inc., a
for-profit corporation based in King of Prussia, Penn.
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