Judge Drops Charges Against Teacher in Autistic Boy’s Death

An Orange County judge Thursday dismissed involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment charges against a Huntington Beach schoolteacher accused of killing a 14-year-old autistic student while trying to control him.

The student suffocated after being rolled inside an exercise mat by the teacher, Jeanne Warnecke.

Central Municipal Judge Richard W. Stanford Jr. said he did not doubt that Warnecke had caused the boy’s death, but he said there was no evidence that she had malicious intent.

He likened the situation to a police officer who mistakenly causes the death of an innocent person.

Warnecke’s actions in the boy’s death are “between her and her conscience and not something for a court of law,” he said at the conclusion of the four-day preliminary hearing.

Warnecke, 33, who taught students with behavioral problems at the county-run Gill Education Center in Huntington Beach, burst into tears and hugged her lawyer, Paul S. Meyer, then her husband, Tom. She had been free on her own recognizance.

“I just want to get my life going again,” she said afterwards. “I want to teach again.”

The victim, Bartholomew Pico, was severely retarded and had few communication skills. He was one of Warnecke’s students. On May 1, 1986, after he attacked another student, she put a diaper across his face to block his vision, then rolled him in an exercise mat. Testimony showed that she sat on the folded ends of the mat and kept Bartholomew there for more than 10 minutes until he stopped kicking.

It was a few minutes after she had unrolled the mat and summoned the school nurse that Warnecke realized that the boy had not gotten up and appeared limp. The nurse and Warnecke began cardiopulmonary resuscitation; they were joined by the school principal.

By the time the boy got to Humana Hospital in Westminster, he was considered brain dead. He died three days later.

Orange County prosecutors at first cleared Warnecke of criminal wrongdoing in the case. But they reopened the investigation after she was fired from her job last June by the Fairview Developmental Center, which is a state facility. Warnecke had taught at Gill on loan from the center.

Fairview officials said using an exercise mat to control a problem student--called matting--was acceptable. But in firing Warnecke, they said she had used improper matting technique.

Prosecutors took the case to the Orange County Grand Jury last October, and it indicted her.

Testimony showed that she had violated procedure by placing the mat over Bartholomew’s head, cutting off his air supply.

Her attorney, Meyer, argued that lay people might have considered her reaction to the boy’s behavior improper, but that a classroom full of autistic students is “a different world.”

“These are socially undesirable people,” Meyer said. “. . . Sometimes what a teacher has to do may seem strange and distasteful to others.”

Judge Stanford seemed to agree.

In making his comparison to the case of the police officer, the judge said, both the officer and Warnecke were taking on “a job not everybody wants to do.” Even if Warnecke and the police officer may have made a mistake that directly led to a death, the judge said, that doesn’t mean a crime was committed.

The purpose of the preliminary hearing was to decide whether to order Warnecke to stand trial. While prosecutors could re-file the charges, that rarely occurs once charges are dismissed at a preliminary hearing.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Bernadette Cemore had argued to the court that it did not take a trained expert to know that placing a mat over someone’s head for more than 10 minutes is like sticking his head in a plastic bag.

“A person placed in that mat is not going to be able to breath. . . . It is Jeanne Warnecke who placed that child in danger,” Cemore said.

She also argued that Warnecke’s technique for handling Bartholomew Pico was contrary to all her previous training on how “matting” should be done.

Cemore later declined to comment on Stanford’s decision.

“The judge is protecting all the trained professional people who might find themselves in a situation like this,” Meyer said. “I’m happy for Jeanne. She is a good teacher and a sweet lady.”

Warnecke has sought reinstatement to her job. Hearings have been held, and a decision by state officials is due in about two months.

The Warneckes, who live in Huntington Beach, said they have received letters of support from across the country.

Warnecke said that while she “absolutely” feels sadness at the youth’s death, “I did not do anything wrong.” She disputed testimony from associates that the boy’s head was covered by the mat.

“I did not cover the boy’s head,” she said.

Meyer tried to argue that while the pathologist’s report showed that the boy had died from asphyxiation because to suffocation, that opinion was based more on police reports than the medical evidence.

The judge did not agree. But the judge said the key issue was not the cause of death, or even whether Warnecke had followed proper procedures. The important thing, he said, was whether she could reasonably be expected to know the consequences of her actions.