COURTS : No Charges Filed in Retarded Boy’s Death
The Orange County district attorney’s office announced it will file no criminal charges in the case of a retarded 14-year-old boy who died after a teacher restrained him.
The incident occurred at the Gill Education Center in Huntington Beach, which is operated by the county.
On the bus ride to the school from Fairview Developmental Center, where the boy lived, he had thrown a tantrum.
At the school his tantrum continued. He threw feces, scratched himself and others and had knocked down another student.
As 62-pound Barth Pico became more violent, a teacher blindfolded him with a diaper, covered his hands with socks, rolled him in an exercise mat and sat on him.
Pico stopped breathing and died.
A district attorney’s spokesman said there was “insufficient evidence to support any criminal homicide prosecution.”
The Huntington Beach Police Department, however, publicly disagreed with the decision. “We were pushing for manslaughter. We feel it was negligent,” a police spokesman said.
And both the Orange County Department of Education and Fairview Developmental Center said they would conduct their own investigations.
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