Group home worker charged in
9-year-olds death
Posted Thursday,
March 27, 2003 - 11:25 pm
By Tim Smith
STAFF WRITER
COLUMBIA — A
worker at a group home for troubled children was charged Thursday
with homicide by child abuse in the death of a 9-year-old boy at the
home Sunday, authorities said.
State Department of Social Services
officials are questioning every child at New Hope Treatment Center
near Summerville about their care at the facility and are not
sending other children there until after the DSS inquiry is
complete, said Jerry Adams, a spokesman.
Nine-year-old Jamal Odum was
discovered unconscious in one of New Hope's cottages about 10 a.m.
Sunday and rescue workers could not revive him. The boy had been
sent to the facility about a month ago from Newport News, Va.
Adams, who earlier this week said the
facility had a good reputation, said DSS officials became more
concerned after another child at the facility was taken into
emergency protective custody by Berkeley County authorities
Wednesday.
"Obviously we're real, real concerned
about the allegations and in a limited fashion, what we've heard
from other kids," he said. "It just warrants further investigation."
Blair Jennings, a deputy solicitor
for the judicial circuit that includes Berkeley County, said
additional charges are expected in the case.
He said authorities charged the
worker Thursday after reviewing tape from a video camera aimed at
the hallway where the boy died Sunday morning. He said the boy died
of positional asphyxiation, stopped breathing due to some type of
restraint.
Jennings said he has talked with the
boy's parents to inform them of the investigation's findings.
"They're still in shock at his
death," he said.
An officer at the Berkeley County
Detention Center said the worker was released from jail Thursday
after posting a $30,000 bond.
New Hope is a private, 41-bed
facility for the treatment of children ages 6 to 13 with
psychological disorders.
Adams said the Jedburg facility now
has about 36 children, some from state agencies and others from out
of state. He said DSS is notifying other states of the boy's death
and the circumstances.
Adams said DSS regulatory and
clinical officials are examining the facility. He said six to eight
DSS officials are interviewing the children.
The agency is examining what records
the home has filed, Adams said, in connection with any restraints it
has used on children. The state requires a report to be filed in any
use of restraints, he said.
"We're going to be reviewing all of
those issues to find out if there had been critical incidents they
didn't report to us and see what kind of restraint training they had
been doing," he said.
Adams said employees of the facility
are much more cooperative with authorities than they were initially.
The facility is one of four operated
by New Hope in South Carolina. The other facilities treat older
adolescents in Rock Hill, West Columbia and Summerville, according
to the company's Web site.
Jerry White, chief clinical officer
for the private company that runs the home and three others like it
in South Carolina, told The Greenville News Tuesday that it
was the first time a child had died in any of its homes. He said the
company was doing its own probe of the death.
"We're all heart broken," White said
then.
Adams said it is only the second time
DSS officials can recall a child dying in a group home. He said the
last time occurred in 2002 at another facility, when a 16-year-old
girl died in a car wreck after stealing a car from the home.
Adams said New Hope is one of about
190 group homes and other types of facilities operating in South
Carolina for the treatment of emotionally disturbed children, mostly
adolescents.
One of those homes, Crain House in
southern Greenville County, was the subject of a DSS and criminal
probe last year over allegations of sexual assaults, excessive
runaways and inappropriate contact between staff and youth. One
former staff member was eventually charged with criminal sexual
conduct with a minor in the second degree, assault and battery of a
high and aggravated nature and contributing to the delinquency of a
minor, according to Greenville County sheriff's warrants.
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