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Aide: Restraint may have been
excessive
Defendant told police overwork possibly led him to use extra force
October 9, 2007
By Robert Gavin
ALBANY -- A state health aide
accused of manslaughter for the smothering death of a 13-year-old
autistic boy told police that endless work and 16-hour days might
have caused him to be "a little excessive" when he restrained the
boy, according to court papers. Edwin Tirado told Colonie Police
Investigator James J. Gerace that he worked "nine or 10" double
shifts in the two weeks before Jonathan Carey died on Feb. 15 as
Tirado tried to restrain him in the back of a van from the O.D. Heck
Developmental Center in Niskayuna.
In a nine-page statement, Tirado
described a series of restraints he said he used to calm the
combative boy.
Gerace asked: "What do you think
caused this medical emergency in Jonathan?"
"Umm, while doing the (seated
wrap), the holding of the arms might have been, maybe a little
excessive due to his increasing behaviors in the van," Tirado
replied.
During the Feb. 16 interview,
Gerace asked: "Do you think you being overworked had anything to do
with this?"
"It is possible," Tirado replied.
"I have done more overtime than anyone else in the unit."
Asked how much time he had off,
Tirado said, "None. I've worked my days off."
The 36-year-old Tirado of
Schenectady is expected to take the stand today when his trial
resumes in Albany County Court. His statement was read to jurors
Friday as prosecutors rested their case. Tirado faces 5 to 15 years
in prison if convicted of manslaughter and criminally negligent
homicide.
Tirado is accused of smothering
Carey during a Feb. 15 trip from the O.D. Heck Developmental Center
to Crossgates Mall. Instead of visiting the mall, prosecutors say
Tirado and then-colleague Nadeem Mall, 33, stopped outside a
Hannaford supermarket on Wolf Road so Mall could go to the bank --
then drove around, making numerous stops, after the boy fell
unconscious in their van.
In Albany County Court on Friday,
jurors not only heard Tirado's lengthy interviews with police, but
were shown a video-tape in which the defendant demonstrated the
techniques he used to restrain Carey. The boy had allegedly started
acting up while Mall was in the supermarket.
Tirado's attorney, Brian Donohue,
tried unsuccessful to keep the tape and the statement out of the
trial.
"You had a guy who was just
completely exhausted, completely upset and scared to death," Donohue
said Monday. "You can't expect that everything he says is going to
be completely accurate."
In the written statement, Tirado
told police he initially touched Carey's right shoulder to sit him
down after the boy grabbed the face and throat of a 16-year-old
developmentally disabled youth in the van. It worked, but when Carey
got up again, Tirado needed to use "two-hand touch control," placing
both hands under the boy's armpits, he stated.
When Carey became more combative,
Tirado said he used the "seated wrap" technique, in which he sat
next to the boy and grabbed both of his hands as the child's arms
were crossed, almost like a strait jacket. He kept Carey in the wrap
for about 15 minutes, Tirado told police.
The aide said he initially thought
Carey fell asleep, but later found the boy had no pulse. Still,
Tirado told police he didn't believe it was a medical emergency,
even after the child lay unresponsive. He said he became nervous
when he didn't "feel a pulse or anything," according to the
statement.
Tirado told police he believed he
used the proper seated wrap technique, but acknowledged he didn't
check for bruises on Carey because he was wearing a coat.
"I could have taken the coat off
and checked the arms and chest areas," Tirado told Gerace, "but I
didn't." The Times Union, citing state payroll records, reported in
June that Tirado logged 1,647 overtime hours last year. It was the
fourth-highest figure of overtime hours among the 1,382 people who
worked at O.D. Heck in 2006 and 18th overall among the 23,000
employees at the state Office of Mental Retardation and
Developmental Disabilities.
On the video, Tirado explains how
he and Mall realized Carey wasn't breathing when they stopped at a
Hess gas station on Central Avenue, following the stop at Hannaford.
Instead of getting help, they went to the E.B. Games video store in
Mohawk Commons in Niskayuna, picked up a game and dropped it off at
Tirado's home. As Tirado exited the video store, he told Gerace, he
informed Mall the boy was "just laying there" and that he was
nervous.
"What were you hoping was going
(to) happen," Gerace asked.
"Nothing," Tirado answered. "I
didn't hope for anything. I was just nervous. I was just scared."
Earlier, Gerace asked Tirado on
video, "Looking back on it, would you call the ambulance now at
Hess?"
"I would have called," Tirado
responded. "Not only that, I wish I never worked it."
Gavin can be reached 434-2403 or by
e-mail at
rgavin@timesunion.com.
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