3 Jailed, 3 More Wanted in “Fight Club” Case
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There have been some new developments in the “fight club” case in the Corpus Christi State School. As of Friday, Corpus Christi Police have arrested three of the six state workers accused of forcing mentally disabled residents into “fight-club” style brawls. In custody are Vince Johnson, 21, Timothy Dixon, 30, and Stephanie Garza, 21. Police are still seeking Jesse Salazar, 21, Guadalupe Delarosa, 21, and Dangelo Riley, 22.
Criminal charges against the six stem from allegations that for more than a year workers forced disabled residents into orchestrated, late-night fights. The employees were caught after videos of at least 20 fights were discovered on a cell phone that was lost and turned in to police. Four of the videos show residents sustaining injuries from these fights.
Johnson, Dixon (the owner of the cell phone), Salazar, Delarosa, and Riley are all charged with injury to a disabled person. Garza is charged with a state jail felony for allegedly failing to intervene to stop the fights. Arrest warrants allege that five of the employees encouraged, filmed or narrated these fights. Dangelo Riley is seen kicking a resident during a fight, and Timothy Dixon is accused of doing most of the filming and narration on his personal phone.
Since the “fight club” scandal surfaced the Department of Aging and Disability Services have made surprise overnight visits to every dorm in every state school. Gov. Rick Perry has ordered the installation of video cameras, the hiring of security guards, and adding overnight supervisors at all facilities.
Lawmakers are moving quickly to enact emergency state school safety legislation, which passed the Senate on Monday and got a hearing before the House Human Services Committee on Thursday. Rep. Patrick Rose, D-Dripping Springs, told agency officials, “I encourage you to do everything you can right now, and I’m disappointed that we haven’t done more.” The bill would create an ombudsman to oversee abuse and neglect investigations, and would require employees to submit to random drug tests and fingerprinting.
Advocates for people with disabilities say that security guards and surveillance is only a “Band-aid” on a system that is in crisis. The system is so strapped for cash that it is forced to hire inexperienced, unprofessional employees, and these new measures do not go far enough. I agree. I do not think creating an ombudsman is going to solve the problem. We have TDADS watching over nursing homes and they do little in investigating and preventing abuse and neglect of another vulnerable group, the elderly.