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Errands, shopping, death
February 17, 2007
By Michele Morgan Bolton and Tim O'Brien
Boy stops breathing after being
restrained, police say, but care workers drive on to get beverages
and buy video game.
 COLONIE
-- A 13-year-old boy with autism died after police say two care
workers for the disabled drove him around for 90 minutes -- running
errands, buying beverages and shopping -- when he stopped breathing
in their van.
The men, one of whom allegedly used
an improper physical restraint on the boy, were both charged with
manslaughter.
Colonie Police said the workers did
not seek or offer medical help during the Thursday drive. Instead,
the employees of the O.D. Heck Developmental Center in Niskayuna
allegedly stopped to buy beverages, then a computer game and then
dropped the game off at one man's home.
Jonathan Carey, 13, is pictured with
his brother, Joshua, 9, on a visit to New Horizon Stables
last December. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union)
Edwin Tirado, 35, of 1634 6th Ave.,
Schenectady, and Nadeem Mall, 32, of 9 Plaske Drive, Schenectady,
only reported the boy needed medical attention once they finally
returned to the O.D. Heck Center where the child, who was also
mentally retarded, lived, police said.
The child, identified by police as
Jonathan Carey, had been with the Niskayuna center since his parents
moved him from a Dutchess County facility they believed had abused
him.
"We are devastated," sobbed Mike
Carey as he and his wife, Lisa, waited for an airplane to bring them
home. "He was such a special human being."
 The
Glenmont couple was on a long-awaited vacation together, having left
their younger son with friends. It was to be a respite from the
constant advocacy for Jonathan.
"We can't believe it," they sobbed
from the St. Thomas airport in the Virgin Islands. "We are in total
shock."
The accused O.D. Heck employees are
being held in Albany County jail without bail.
Police said Mall was driving a van
to take Jonathan Carey and a 14-year-old client, whose identity
hasn't been made public, from O.D. Heck to Crossgates Mall, Colonie
Police Chief Steven Heider said in a Friday news conference.
The Carey family, from left, Joshua, 9, mother Lisa, Jonathan, 13,
and father Mike are
seen on a stable visit last December. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times
Union)
Along the drive, Mall stopped for
cash from an ATM and when he returned to the van, according to
Heider, Tirado had the boy in the illegal hold. "The two
adults rendered no aid and they did not return to O.D. Heck for an
hour and a half," Heider said.
Efforts were made to revive the boy
at the center, and he was taken to St. Claire's Hospital in
Schenectady, where he was pronounced dead. Police cannot say the boy
died in the van because a person is not ruled dead until pronounced
so by a hospital or medical examiner, the chief said. An autopsy is
set for today.
"The 13-year-old succumbed to what
we're alleging were improper and wrongful holds placed on him,"
Heider said.
Niskayuna Police were called first,
but their investigation indicated the boy had been suffocated while
being driven around Colonie, he said. Police said the 14-year-old
client is verbal and was able to give them a description of the
events.
"The bottom line is the Niskayuna
police and the first responders did a fantastic job here in being
able to pick apart their story," said Albany County District
Attorney David Soares. "You couldn't ask for anything better."
Soares said the case will be put to
a grand jury for indictment as soon as results of the autopsy are
received. Although current information supports the charges of
manslaughter, Soares said, he wouldn't rule out the possibility of
increased charges.
"It's too early to tell," he said.
"At this point in time, my thoughts are with the Carey family."
The state Office of Mental
Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, which oversees the
center, issued a statement Friday expressing sadness over the boy's
death.
"Officials have been and will
continue to work closely with law enforcement as they piece together
what happened," the statement said, adding the agency provides
"intensive staff training, monitoring and follow-up of any use of
behavioral interventions and, given the current situation, these
protocols will once again be reviewed."
Spokeswoman Deborah Sturm Rausch
said she was not sure if she could find information about what Mall
and Tirado's exact job titles were, or whether they had to be, or
were, licensed.
Tirado, who had worked at the
agency for six years, was the person restraining the boy but Mall
had an equal responsibility for failing to provide or get medical
assistance, Heider said. He declined to specify what hold was used
but said the boy suffocated.
A woman answering the door with an
infant at Mall's Schenectady home declined to comment. There was no
answer when a reporter approached Tirado's home.
Since 2004, the Carey family has
fought for legislation to force state agencies to disclose
information they said could prove abuse of patients like their son.
In October that year, Mike said he found Jonathan, then 11, naked,
covered in bruises and laying in his own urine in the Anderson
School in Dutchess County. The father had popped in unexpectedly to
visit his son and took him home the same day.
The Careys said they never knew
what their son endured because Jonathan was nonverbal and couldn't
tell them himself. He was moved to O.D. Heck where the Careys said
in December he was doing well.
The Careys described the
fawn-haired boy with huge cerulean eyes as a good son who loved his
father and mother. "He loved to watch Jesus films," Mike said
softly. "He loved people and wanted to be around people. He loved
horses. There was just so much love in his heart."
Jonathan was a regular visitor of
the New Horizons stable on Pearse Road. When he was riding horses,
Jonathan seemed happy, his parents said.
The Careys sued Anderson School in
2005, in state Supreme Court in Albany, claiming the institution and
its staff violated Jonathan's right to safety and nourishment.
In December, Mike Carey said, "No
parent or guardian should ever have to go through what Lisa and I
have had to endure just to get answers. We would have been arrested
if what happened to Jonathan had happened at home."
Since then, the couple has fought
to get sealed records opened that they believe could reveal who had
physically abused the boy as well as who knew it but did nothing to
prevent it or report it. He said he hoped his son's death would
enable the family to get the law changed.
"This is what we had been concerned
about, what we have been fighting for," Mike said, of his son's
death. "We really felt compelled, like a God-given responsibility,
to help other children, to get changes and reform to help prevent
something like this from happening."
Michele Morgan Bolton can be
reached at 434-2403 or by e-mail at
mbolton@timesunion.com.
Paul Nelson contributed to this story.
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