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Wisconsin clinic fined $100,000 in
girl's death; employee gets 60 days jail
March 12, 2007
By Kevin Harter
 Angellika
Arndt died in May at age 7 after being restrained by an employee at
a Rice Lake facility. A Barron County Circuit judge levied the
maximum fine against a Wisconsin company that owned a counseling
center found responsible in the death of a 7-year-old girl last
year.
The judge fined the operators of
Rice Lake's Northwest Counseling Center $100,000 during a hearing
this afternoon. The judge also sentenced the man accused of
restraining the girl until her body went listless to 60 days in the
county jail.
It was 10 months ago that
7-year-old Angellika "Angie" Arndt a brown-eyed, 56-pound girl
was held down at the Rice Lake facility for as long as 30 minutes.
She never recovered from the May 25 incident and died the next day
in the hospital.
After her death, the Rice Lake
clinic was cited by the state, had its license suspended and
ultimately shut down. And it was learned that Angie, who had
attended the clinic's day treatment center five days a week for a
month for behavioral problems, had been restrained on at least nine
occasions, according to a state investigative report.
Staff member Bradley A. Ridout, a
29-year-old from Rice Lake, is the staff member who covered the
girl's body with his own, had pleaded "no contest" to a misdemeanor
charge of negligent abuse of a patient causing bodily harm. The
Sunday school teacher had faced up to nine months in jail.
The Frederic, Wis.-based
corporation that owned and operated the center and still operates 11
others pleaded no contest to one felony count of negligent abuse of
a resident.
Angie's case has prompted
complaints from advocates of children and those with disabilities,
who are seeking tougher laws on the use of restraints and
accountability.
"The punishment doesn't fit the
crime," Rick Pelishek, the Rice Lake-based regional director of
Disability Rights Wisconsin, said last week. "Usually a felony
results in jail time, but you can't put a corporation in jail."
Angie, an active girl who liked
dolls, dresses and country music, was born in Milwaukee. Her parents
relinquished their rights to her as a toddler and she became a ward
of the state. She had been in and out of foster care before Donna
and Daniel Pavlik took her in to their Ladysmith home in early 2005.
The girl had been diagnosed with a
reactive attachment disorder, a mood disorder and an attention
deficit with hyperactivity disorder, according to a state report.
The couple said they were making progress with the girl, and they
certainly never restrained her.
On May 25, Ridout was called to
help a coworker restrain Angie. He covered the crying girl's upper
body with his own, according to court records, and held her head for
about 30 minutes. Her body became listless.
Believing she had fallen asleep,
staff rolled Angie over, only to notice has had turned blue and was
not responding.
The Hennepin County medical
examiner ruled her death a homicide caused by "complications of
chest compression asphyxiation" leading to "cardiopulmonary arrest
while restrained by another person."
A number of problems were found
with the center, among them, according to the charges:
When the Rice Lake center
admitted Angie, staff failed to review her medical and psychological
records.
Essential staff failed to consult
a prepared treatment plan for Angie before treating her.
Insufficient guidance was
provided staff in the proper implementation of the facility's highly
ambiguous written restraint policy.
Inconsistent policy inadequately
defined what circumstances required restraint.
The "emergency" restraint policy
became justification for almost daily physical restraint of Angie.
"From the time of her admission to
the time of her death, there had been numerous acts and omissions by
employees of the facility that had compromised Angie's safety," John
Knappmiller, chief investigator for the Wisconsin Department of
Justice, said of the center in charging papers.
The state continues to monitor
Northwest Counseling and Guidance to ensure that it is following
orders, including improving training to prevent conflict from
escalating to the point of restraint, which is to be used only when
a patient is a danger to him or herself or others.
Two clinics in Hudson and New
Richmond that have a similar name Northwest Counseling Services
are not affiliated with the company that ran the Rice Lake center.
Kevin Harter can be reached at
kharter@pioneerpress.com or 800-950-9080, ext. 2149.
Pick up Tuesday's Pioneer Press for
more details on this developing story.
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