ABC Nightline report

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

The report is accompanied by cellphone video of fights staged at the Corpus Christi State School, Corpus Christi, Texas. Men are shown punching, kicking, choking and smothering one another as laughter is heard.

Video is here.

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Nightline correspondent Brian Ross: This is the Texas state school for the mentally disabled in Corpus Christi, Texas, a place where residents feared what would happen when senior supervisors went home and the night shift came on duty. Then it was time for what was called the “fight club.”

Residents would be rousted from their beds by the night shift workers who controlled their lives and forced them to fight one another.

Here one resident nearly smothers another.

The  staff recorded the events for their apparent amusement. They called out the blow by blow like ring announcers, declaring a winner.

The staff members can be heard laughing and prodding the residents to fight, according to Bob Hilliard, the attorney for one of the former fight club victims.

Bob Hilliard, attorney for former resident: Not only are they prodding them to fight. When they run away, it’s like a pack of wolves, chasing,  you know, the weak and the helpless.

(Footage of people running)

Ross: The pack chased one troubled and confused resident through the halls to get him to fight, showing no mercy.

(Sound of man’s voice, crying out.)

Hilliard: And he gets to a point to where his fear gets him to just start moaning at the top of his lungs.

(Sound of man’s voice, crying out.)

You can clearly hear him saying “I’ll behave,” as if he’s pleading for some way to get out of this net they have him in.

And then the same staff members start to comfort him.

He is so mentally disabled that he accepts their comfort without understanding they’re the ones who got him to that level of fear to where he cannot do anything but moan. He’s past tears, he’s past crying. He just does not understand why this is happening.

(Footage of men fighting.)

Ross: Residents were told that they would be sent to prison or  be beaten if they did not fight.

Armando Hernandez, former resident: They take me to like in a restroom and they say to me [unintelligible] in the shower and I say to them no, I say I’m not … (wipes eyes) you know what I mean?

Woman’s voice: And if you say no to them, what would be their response?

Hernandez: They’d just punch me in my mouth for no reason.

Ross: Former resident 21-year-old Armando Hernandez says he was warned not to tell anyone about the fight club, even his mother. “Snitches get stitches,” he was told. He and his mother are now suing the state.

Hernandez: I feel sad because like I would just be crying every night after I go back to sleep. I would be like, why am I doing this to me — to them?

Inez Hernandez, Armando’s mother: He’s big, husky, but up here (points to head) Armando is only 12, 14. He’s scared just like a child would be scared.

Ross: The fight club came to an end only because one of the staff lost his phone two months ago, and it was turned into police, who then discovered the videos. The state fired all six night shift employees, and five were indicted last week on charges of causing injury to a disabled person. A sixth was charged with failure to report the crime. Police say the ringleader was 30-year-old Tim Dixon, the night shift supervisor.

Bob Hilliard, attorney for former resident: Once the doors were locked at night, these guys had the run of the place. They had the keys to the kingdom.

Ross: The videos show many of the residents being bloodied and bruised. Apparently, no one on the day shift noticed.

Hilliard: When you look at the tapes, you’ll see that there is no fear that any of these folks had that they’re going to get caught or that they’re doing anything wrong. They have a complete run of the school. You know, it is, at night, like “Lord of the Flies”.

Ross: Texas Governor Rick Perry says he is outraged.

Gov. Perry: I think the state has taken the appropriate steps, and those that were involved, and those are going to be prosecuted to the limit of our ability.

Ross: But the governor and the state have been on notice about problems at Corpus Christi and the 12 other state facilities for the mentally disabled since budgets were cut some five years ago. A federal civil rights investigation released this December found a pervasive pattern of abuse with some 800 employees suspended or fired for abusing residents since 2004 — and that was before the discovery of the fight club videos in Corpus Christi.

State Rep. Abel Herrero: I think what you’re starting to see now are the negative of those decisions that were made in not fully funding these programs.

Ross: Leaders of the mental health community say the shocking videos are not a complete surprise. The Texas state facilities for the mentally disabled have a poor reputation among professionals, who believe the Texas system is fundamentally flawed because it still relies on large institutional settings like the school in Corpus Christi.

Paul Marchand, staff director, The Arc: They’re right out of the nineteenth century, despite the fact that they have been modernized, despite the fact that there may be more staff to deal with them than previously, they simply don’t work.

Ross: No official at the Corpus Christi School or at its headquarters in Austin would agree to talk with ABC News.

In a state, the department said it had no idea about the fight club until the video surfaced, and it said it had taken action to stop this kind of abuse from happening again.

Hilliard: It’s a place past fear. It’s a place where they have almost accepted that the school that they’re locked into could very well end up being a coffin for them. I mean they really get to a point where they believe they may not survive, and it’s in their face.

Ross: The Texas Legislature is now considering an emergency bill aimed at making state facilities much safer, so in the end, the powerful videos may help advocates who push for better treatment for the mentally disabled and provoke a nationwide debate about how to care for society’s most vulnerable.