News Room

Family files lawsuit over alleged fights
March 27, 2009

A woman who says her mentally disabled son was forced to fight in bouts staged by staff at the Corpus Christi State School has filed a civil lawsuit against the state. Inez Hernandez says her son, Armando Hernandez Jr., 21, was injured physically and emotionally after being forced to fight when he lived at the state school in 2007 and 2008.

Written by Staff, The Associated Press

Kid

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) - A woman who says her mentally disabled son was forced to fight in bouts staged by staff at the Corpus Christi State School has filed a civil lawsuit against the state.

Inez Hernandez says her son, Armando Hernandez Jr., 21, was injured physically and emotionally after being forced to fight when he lived at the state school in 2007 and 2008.

The lawsuit was filed Thursday in district court against the state Department of Aging and Disability Services, which oversees the schools that are large residential facilities for the mentally disabled.

Criminal charges were recently filed against six former or current employees of the Corpus Christi campus alleging that residents were forced to fight for the staff's entertainment.

State officials have said they're investigating those cases and the agency is committed to giving residents proper care. But Laura Albrecht, the Aging and Disability Services' spokeswoman, said Thursday she can't comment on Hernandez's suit because they had not yet been served.

The lawsuit claims that employees at the state agency terrorized Armando Hernandez into participating in "this despicable fight club" and caused the violent behavior by videotaping and cheering on the fighting. It blames the state for allowing employees to have and use cell phones to record the fights, a point that Hernandez's attorney said allows them to sue the state and bypass its immunity.

"It's an interesting dichotomy," said attorney Robert Hilliard. "If not for the cell phones we never would have identified the issues; but for the cell phones they never would have been subject to a suit."

He said the state agency can't be sued except in certain instances, such as when the "injury was contributed to by the use of tangible personal property."

The suit contends that the state was negligent on numerous points, among them failing to properly screen and supervise its employees, failing to provide a safe and hazard free facility for state school residents and failing to provide immediate medical attention for Armando Hernandez.

The lawyer said state school's residents are some of the most vulnerable and fragile members of society.

"To think that the protectors of their welfare were turning them into tools for their own sick entertainment makes my blood boil," Hilliard said in a statement.

He told The Associated Press that Armando Hernandez repeatedly refused to fight "until he got the crap beat out of him."

"Armando was actually knocked out cold with a punch to the jaw when he refused to fight," Hilliard said. "They always made him fight people littler than him because they just wanted to see brutality.

"Though Armando has the mind of a 12-year-old he's a fairly stout looking guy. They'd find weaker looking opponents."

Hilliard said Armando Hernandez is an easily manipulated and trusting young man who was sent to the state school after neighborhood kids convinced him to go with them when they broke into a local school when he was 18.

Inez Hernandez chose the state school over jail time for her son because "she believed the judge when the judge said this will help him assimilate into society," Hilliard said.

The lawsuit seeks damages but doesn't specify a dollar amount.

The six former or current employees were charged with injury to a disabled person in the criminal case.

View Printer-Friendly Format

Related Stories

SHAPLEIGH: WAGING WAR ON HISPANICS IN TEXAS
March 1, 2011

By now, the Rick Perry, Radical Republican agenda is clear. During the 82nd Session of the Texas Legislature, TEA party Republicans mean to wage war on Hispanics.

In Perry’s party, which just took 22 seats away from Democrats to create a supermajority in the Texas House, the agenda is now crystal clear—cut taxes for the billionaires that funded Perry’s last election, cut budgets for key programs that invest in Hispanic education and health, cut regulations to corporations like the predatory lenders whose PACs pay for House wins and do anything possible to keep Hispanics away from the ballot box.

SENATOR ELIOT SHAPLEIGH REFLECTS ON THE WISCONSIN SHOWDOWN
February 23, 2011

Retired state Senator Eliot Shapleigh from El Paso sent the following letter to the Milwaukee Sentinel editor. Shapleigh was one of 11 Senate Democrats who left the state for Albuquerque, N.M. in the summer of 2003 to deny a quorum needed for the Senate to approve a controversial redistricting bill. After holding out for 48 days, Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, threw in the towel – and the Texas Legislature approved another congressional redistricting map.

JOBS, SECURITY AND MOBILITY—BEYOND MERIDA IN THE PASO DEL NORTE
October 8, 2010

"On March 23, 2010 in Mexico City, the U.S. and Mexico launched the foundation of a 21st century bilateral partnership called "The New Border Vision." After months of consultation with the Calderon administration and joined by Secretaries Gates and Napolitano, Secretary of State Clinton announced a new policy named "Beyond Merida." The new federal accord has four key policy pillars: disrupt capacity of organized crime to operate; institutionalize capacity to sustain rule of law; create a 21st century border structure; and build strong and resilient communities. Here in the "Pass of the North," Beyond Merida must mean safety, jobs and mobility."

The Volcker Rule
July 26, 2010

On the evening of Wednesday, June 23rd, Paul Volcker, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, was monitoring events on Capitol Hill from his office, which overlooks the ice-skating rink at Rockefeller Center. Volcker, who is eighty-two years old, works at a polished granite desk covered with correspondence, books, and financial reports. Apart from a slight loss of hearing, he is in robust health, and when he rises to greet guests he towers above them. His height (six feet eight inches) is initially intimidating, but that impression is soon mitigated by his wry manner. For a year and a half, Volcker, who serves as an economic adviser to President Barack Obama, had been waging a campaign to curb greed and speculation on Wall Street. This effort was reaching a climax, as the Senate and the House of Representatives worked to reconcile the lengthy financial-reform bills that each had passed.

The El Paso Miracle
July 6, 2010

How can a comparatively poor, high-immigration town that sits across the border from super-violent Ciudad Juarez be one of the safest big cities in America?

Fair Use Notice
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a "fair use" of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond "fair use", you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.