Teachers Put Up $3,000 to Help Teen

Even before hitting the series of dead-ends that would land him in the Pitchess jail last month, the odds appeared to be heavily stacked against Oscar Roman Alcala.

As a child growing up Mexico, he was beaten by relatives to the point he lost much of his hearing, according to his older brother.

Later, after moving to North Hollywood to live with his father and stepmother, he was placed in classes for mentally retarded children at a local middle school. Despite his best efforts, Alcala failed to learn to read and write beyond a first-grade level, his former teachers said.

Perhaps worst of all, the boy endured near constant ridicule from other children who made him the target of cruel jokes and derogatory nicknames.

Police say the young man they know is not a victim, but a threat to society.

They maintain that Alcala, 18, is a longtime gang member who has been flouting the law since he was 13, drinking beer and hard liquor and regularly smoking a combination of cocaine and marijuana known as “primos.” He already has a robbery conviction, records show.

His gang name was “Little Psycho,” police say, indicating pride in a madly reckless criminal reputation. The nickname was no such thing, his defenders retort. Instead, they say, it was a cruel jibe at his serious mental handicaps by street companions who left him holding the bag because he cannot think clearly enough to talk his way out of police questioning.

Police say Alcala and two accomplices knocked a 40-year-old man off his bicycle on a North Hollywood street last July and tried to rob him. Now, Alcala is facing as much as 11 years in state prison with a second “strike” if convicted.

Two of his former teachers at Walter Reed Middle School in North Hollywood insist the gangster image does not reflect reality. They are challenging the police version of events and are fighting to have the teen released at their own expense.

Special education teacher Ann Shabtay and Eileen Gabler, Alcala’s former speech therapist, say he is a “throwaway child” who was branded a criminal because no one cared enough to delve into his past. So far, the pair say, they have spent $3,000 to keep him from going to prison.

“Oscar is a sacrificial lamb,” Gabler said. “He belongs in therapy, not in prison. No matter what it takes, we are going to save Oscar Alcala because he deserves it.”

The women say Alcala suffers from a medical condition known as aphasia and characterized by an inability to communicate properly or process thoughts.

“His speech is unintelligible, and he has inappropriate responses to any verbal communication,” said Gabler, who worked with Alcala from seventh grade until his sophomore year in high school. “He was always smiling, often without reason--maybe that’s why the police thought he was a smartass.”

Dr. Paul Satz, chief of the neuro-psychology program at the UCLA School of Medicine and an expert on aphasia, described it as a congenital or acquired disorder involving expression of thoughts or the comprehension of spoken or written language.

“In its severe form, it can significantly compromise an individual’s ability to negotiate, communicate and or understand what is going on,” Satz said. “It may also affect basic intellectual function. In children and adolescents one can also expect serious delays in social and emotional development.

“Many of these children, when put in novel or stressful situations, could be seriously compromised in their ability to conduct themselves effectively. Often a typical response pattern in such situations is withdrawal, avoidance or acquiescence.”

During middle school and high school, Alcala applied for several jobs but was repeatedly turned down because he couldn’t pass a basic reading test, Shabtay said. Eventually he found work where he didn’t have to fill out applications or meet the expectations of prospective employers: selling flowers at the corner of Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Riverside Drive.

The youth moved to Oregon in 1997 with his twin sister to make a better life for himself, his teachers said. But when she got married and moved to Atlanta eight months later, he returned to Los Angeles.

“We tried to help him out and get him back to school,” said his older brother, Seferino Alcala. “But I guess he went back with the wrong crowd, who started pressuring him again.”

Alcala befriended the “wrong element” because he believed that they accepted him and were his friends, his teachers said. The moniker “Little Psycho” likely came from kids who didn’t understand his disability and branded him “loco,” which stuck with him, they said.

“He didn’t realize they were laughing at him and using him,” Gabler said. “Oscar was the only one held by police because he couldn’t answer their questions appropriately.”

In a rambling and jumbled statement to authorities, Alcala admitted he was there during the robbery for which he was charged and said, “I kicked the, I kicked the bike to scare him.”

In court documents, authorities acknowledge the defendant has learning disabilities and has been in special education classes for several years. At the same, they noted there was “no indication or claim of significant physical, mental or emotional health problems.”

“It didn’t appear to me he’s a poor little victim of society. He’s very much able to make his own decisions,” said Claude Gural, an officer with the LAPD’s North Hollywood anti-gang unit. “It’s not accurate that he was some kid standing on the sidelines, not involved. As far as I know, he is an active member.

“He may have a learning disability,” Gural said. “That’s different from a mental handicap. Having a learning disability won’t affect [knowing] right from wrong or committing crimes. He knows better than that.”

Prosecutors with the Van Nuys branch of the Los Angeles district attorney’s office said they have offered Alcala a generous deal under which the potential maximum 11-year sentence could be reduced to six years and four months. Though he would technically pick up another strike, his sentence would not be increased by a second-strike penalty.

“You have people who were not there who said he couldn’t have done these acts,” said a prosecutor who asked not to be named. “Nevertheless, he could have done acts that make him equally guilty, like a gratuitous kick of the victim.”

Dr. Louis Simpson of the Augustus Hawkins Mental Health Center in Los Angeles said cases like Alcala’s are all too familiar in Los Angeles and other urban centers.

“It essentially represents how our present-day society deals with kids who have disabilities like aphasia, hyperactivity, dyslexia and conduct disorders,” Simpson said. “These kids that have fallen through the safety net. They used to be looked after by a close extended family and neighbors. But now it’s a society of strangers that brands these kids as dumb and uncompetitive. Society quickly discards and then warehouses them.”

“I think he’s been beaten down to the point he has almost given up,” Shabtay said. “That’s very unlike him, because he was a little boy that never gave up on anything; he always worked hard and always came to class.”