Jim Killackey
09/14/2000
Choctaw Living Center workers repeatedly egged on a mentally retarded man, who is charged with killing another resident, by giving the man soft drinks to start fights, asking him to initiate wrestling holds and then dismissing the escalating harassment as play, the state Health Department reports.
The Health Department's investigation, used to close down the center Friday, notes that Jerome Vaught had been abusing Joe Louis "J.J." McCormick Jr. "for months," yet most incidents went unreported to administrator Debbie Jones.
Using a steel pipe and a wooden handle, Vaught, 34, twice chased McCormick, 26, the report said.
On one occasion, the report noted, workers restrained Vaught because they feared he was going to choke McCormick with a pillowcase. In late July, Vaught attempted to open doors with McCormick's head while restraining McCormick's arms, according to the report.
Since March, staff members at the center for retarded adults failed to intervene during "numerous episodes of physical aggression between clients," the report said.
The day before McCormick's strangulation Aug. 30, Vaught placed his belt around the younger man's ankles and dragged him along a hallway, the report said. A staff member witnessed the incident, but didn't intervene, the report said.
Vaught was sent to his room "to put away the belt," the report said. About 24 hours later, McCormick was dead. A center employee found Vaught kneeling over McCormick's lifeless body still holding a belt wrapped around the victim's neck, Choctaw police said.
Vaught has been described as having the mental capacity of a 1- or 2-year-old. He has been charged with second-degree murder by Oklahoma County prosecutors, who acknowledge that a judge may rule he is incompetent to face trial.
That fact doesn't curb the anger of McCormick's mother, Leeha Tucker, who blames Vaught and the Choctaw Living Center staff for her son's death.
"It wasn't a spur-of-the-moment assault as the administrator has stated. This was premeditated," Tucker said.
"Retarded people ... can't make a distinction about how far they can go and when they should stop. Once he (Vaught) started doing this, there was the potential for a killing. And he might kill again," Tucker said.
Her son had been a patient at the center for a year after living at home since he graduated at age 21 from an Oklahoma City school for the handicapped.
The Health Department report notes that on Aug. 26 and Aug. 27, two center employees encouraged Vaught three times to fight with McCormick by offering Vaught sodas. The incidents were reported to a supervisor, who didn't intervene and said, "Oh, they're just playing."
While the men watched wrestling on television, a staff member asked Vaught whether he was going to imitate the wrestling moves on McCormick.
On another occasion, Vaught was observed making a threatening gesture by whirling a pillowcase toward McCormick. A caregiver told Health Department investigators that Vaught "would have choked" McCormick if she hadn't intervened. There was documentation of other incidents involving the pair as well, according to the Health Department.
Administrator Debbie Jones on Wednesday termed her employees' actions as "inappropriate," but said she didn't know the extent of the harassment.
"I should have been aware of what was going on. But I cannot act on what I don't know. I acted to the best of my ability on what was reported to me," Jones said.
Jones said she fired two employees involved in the soda incidents. But the Health Department report said the employees' behavior "was not reported to the department of health or any other state authority."
Jones said that Vaught, afflicted with Down syndrome and a resident of the Choctaw home for 13 years, didn't have a history of violent outbursts.
She said Vaught and McCormick both had loud dispositions, and she believes Vaught accidentally killed McCormick while trying to quiet him.
Jones said she twice saw Vaught teasing McCormick by taking the resident's shoes and by pointing at him.
Since the ordered closure of the facility, 20 Choctaw Living Center residents have been difficult to place in other facilities for the retarded statewide because of "aggressive behavior."
Darren Burgess, a Health Department long-term care administrator, said the report was written after in-depth interviews with Choctaw Living Center staff. It was presented to Acting Director Jerry Regier the day before he ordered the relocation of all 74 residents and the center's doors closed.
The home's receiver, Oklahoma City attorney Randy Goodman, and administrator Jones predict that the center will reopen with new owners in 2001.
Earlier this year, the center was fined $10,000 after the body of a woman who suffered a fatal seizure went undiscovered for six days.
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