The Region - News from Oct. 24, 1986

A Huntington Beach teacher was indicted by the Orange County Grand Jury for involuntary manslaughter and felony child endangerment in the death last May of a 14-year-old autistic student. The Orange County district attorney’s office initially declined to file criminal charges against Jeanne Warnecke, 33, but took the case before the grand jury after, it said, “further investigation shed new light on the incident.” The boy, Barth Pico, reportedly misbehaved violently on a bus from the Fairview Developmental Center in Costa Mesa, then went berserk in a classroom at Gill Education Center in Huntington Beach. Warnecke allegedly rolled him in an exercise mat and sat on him. The boy stopped breathing and died three days later.