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Psychiatric Center for Teenagers Is
Mired in Patient Accusations of Rape
August 6, 2007
By ROBERT D. McFADDEN
A widely respected residential
psychiatric treatment center for teenagers in Manhattan acknowledged
yesterday that it was cooperating with law-enforcement authorities
who have charged three former employees with sexually assaulting
girls at the center in recent years.
The suspects, all child-care
workers for the August Aichhorn Center for Adolescent Residential
Care at 23 West 106th Street, were fired in May and early June after
being indicted on multiple counts of rape, sexual abuse and sexual
misconduct involving at least four girls younger than 17. The
allegations were reported yesterday by The New York Post.
“The August Aichhorn Center is
deeply concerned by the allegations of illegal conduct made by
current and former residents against members of our staff,” Dr.
Michael A. Pawel, a psychiatrist who is the center’s executive
director, wrote in a statement posted on the center’s Web site.
The statement added: “Aichhorn has
been fully cooperative with the New York County district attorney’s
office in its investigation and we will continue to cooperate with
all relevant investigations so that it can be determined whether
these allegations are true or false.”
Court records listed the suspects
as Milton Venable, 46, Phree Noel, 32, and Edward R. Tapia, 26, all
Manhattan residents who had worked for years at the treatment center
and have families and roots in the community. All pleaded not guilty
at their arraignments in Manhattan Criminal Court and at the request
of their lawyers were released without bail for court appearances
later this month and in September.
According to the court records,
most of the sexual assaults occurred during the last two years,
although one occurred in 2002. Mr. Venable was charged with two
counts of rape and two of sexual misconduct, Mr. Noel was charged
with numerous counts of rape, and Mr. Tapia was charged with
multiple counts of rape, criminal sexual acts, sexual abuse and
other misconduct.
Dr. Pawel’s statement did not name
the accused men or detail any of the allegations, but it noted that
the center’s patients were among “the most severely troubled
teenagers in the New York area,” and that the center had strict
rules for handling allegations of misconduct.
“The center follows stringent,
documented procedures for the protection of both residents and our
staff, as a healthy and safe environment is necessary for the
successful treatment and rehabilitation of the adolescents in our
care,” Dr. Pawel wrote. “All allegations of mistreatment which are
brought to our attention are taken seriously, internally
investigated and always reported to the proper authorities for an
outside, independent review. We have followed these procedures in
this matter.”
Efforts to reach the accused men
and their lawyers were unsuccessful yesterday, although Mr.
Venable’s father, Frank, said in a brief telephone interview that
the charges against his son were false. Dr. Pawel did not respond to
calls, and Carmen Torres, an administrative aide, referred a
reporter to his Web site statement.
The Aichhorn center, a
co-educational residential facility for 32 patients who range from
12 to 16 years old when they are admitted for treatment, takes in
some of the city’s most troubled teenagers: boys and girls with
records for assault, robbery, arson and other criminal activity, who
have been shuttled among foster homes, state hospitals, juvenile
detention facilities and mental health centers. Treatments take an
average of 30 months.
“We get the youngsters nobody else
can handle,” Dr. Pawel, who founded the center in 1991, told New
York magazine in 1999. The magazine described the center as “part
hospital, part jail,” and said the living quarters had the feel of a
college dormitory, with rooms decorated with movie posters and the
covers of hip-hop magazines.
The center, in a six-story
brownstone, has four living units — three with eight single rooms
and one with four double rooms — and has its own school, a clinic
and recreational facilities. The full-time staff of 86 includes
therapists, teachers and 46 child-care workers, all of them screened
and trained. Rules of the center prohibit staff members from being
alone with a patient.
The work of the center, which
receives more than $5 million in public funding, has drawn wide
praise from state and city mental health officials and others in the
juvenile-justice field. In 2001, Gov. George E. Pataki hailed the
center in a letter to Dr. Pawel. “Through the committed work of
community-based organizations like yours, we will continue to
advance the well-being of young adults in your community and the
entire state.”
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