FYI, we NEED TO ADDRESS THIS AS PEOPLE W/DIABILITIES!

[hcil]

NANCY GRACE
Video Captures Caretakers Abusing Patients; An Interview With Mike Jones, the Male Prostitute Allegedly Patronized by Ted Haggard
Aired February 2, 2007 - 20:00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

NANCY GRACE, HOST: Tonight: Caught on video, two handicapped patients, both unable to even speak, seen whimpering, crying while being slapped and taunted over and over. By whom? Oh, no, not some street thug, but by trusted caregivers, two men working there in the nursing home. And tonight, the thugs are busted, and the video doesn`t lie.
And tonight, a sinner versus a hypocrite. Will the male prostitute or the evangelical legend whose empire he brought down ever see the inside of a courtroom?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REV. TED HAGGARD: We`re so grateful that he failed the polygraph test this morning and -- my accuser did. We have gathered together this outside board of overseers, and they`re going through the process of investigation and finding out what needs to be done to me. You know, I`ve put myself on an extended -- what do we call it -- suspension. My senior pastor`s role - - I`ve resigned from the NAE (ph) because both those roles are based on trust, and right now, my trust is -- is questionable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Yes, I don`t trust you. But what I`m concerned about is trusting the police. You put a male prostitute, methamphetamine, and a confession by an evangelical preacher, and I want to know why somebody hasn`t at least been booked.

Good evening, everybody. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us tonight.

First tonight, to California.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They are screams from a disabled man continuously slapped, police say, by his caretaker. Detective Cherie Hill linked 22-year-old Patrick Solis to the abuse. He worked at the Jossen Vocational Academy and was the primary caregiver of the man in the gray sweatshirt, who was allegedly herded into a bathroom, far from other clients and employees, and abused.

The video clearly shows the disabled man, who has the mental capacity of a 2-year-old, screaming and cowering as he is slapped. At one point, it appears that one of the employees instructs the other, saying, "Hit him a lot for me."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: I can hardly stand to look at that video. The handicapped -- the mentally handicapped victims in this case -- one of them had the mind of a 2-year-old. There was no way for them to fight back or even speak about what had occurred. And that`s not the only video. This apparently happened not only in March, but throughout March and April, that we know of. And still, nobody is behind bars tonight. What more do you need?

Let`s go out to Cindy Carcamo with "The Orange County Register." Tell me what happened, Cindy.

CINDY CARCAMO, "ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER": There was a person that bought the video -- or bought the cell phone, sorry -- bought the cell phone. And about a month later, it looks like they discovered the images. And these images, you guys saw, are very disturbing. This person went to the facility and turned in the images. And then that facility got in contact with the PD, and that`s what we were told, and that`s when they started their investigation.

GRACE: To you, Jean Casarez. What can you add?

JEAN CASAREZ, COURT TV: What Cindy is saying is the video images that you`re seeing on your screen right now -- that`s from a cell phone. And so someone was actually shooting someone else, allegedly the caregivers, beating and whipping and -- and just taunting this -- this emotionally handicapped person, mentally handicapped person. And so that cell phone got in the hands of police, and police have now charged Patrick Solis with one count of false imprisonment of a disabled person and two counts of disabled dependent abuse.

GRACE: Well, it`s not just Patrick Solis. We`re hearing a lot about Patrick Solis. There is also 24-year-old Michael Rama. He is 5 feet, 11 inches, 185 pounds. These two trusted caregivers within this institute, these two mentally handicapped patients beaten, just straight out beaten. There`s no other way to put it.

To Jean Casarez. Why aren`t they behind bars tonight?

CASAREZ: Now, Michael Rama has not been charged, all right? He was the one that owned the cell phone that took the pictures, so that`s his link. And police are looking for him. They want to talk with him. Patrick Solis has been charged -- $25,000 bail. He made bail. So that`s why he`s out tonight.

GRACE: Take a listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Detective Cherie Hill linked 22-year-old Patrick Solis to the abuse. He worked at Jossen Vocational Academy and was the primary caregiver of the man in the gray sweatshirt, who was allegedly herded into a bathroom, far from other clients and employees, and abused. The video clearly shows the disabled man, who has the mental capacity of a 2-year-old, screaming and cowering as he is slapped.

At one point, it appears that one of the employees instructs the other, saying, "Hit him a lot for me."

They are screams from a disabled man continuously slapped, police say, by his caretaker, disturbing images taken on a second caretaker`s cell phone that only came to the attention of the Anaheim detectives when the phone was sold.

Solis has been criminally charged with abusing that client, as well as another. Laughter can be heard coming from the employees as the second disabled victim is slapped on another cell phone video.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Let me get this straight. Back out to Cindy Carcamo with "The Orange County Register." Again, Cindy, thank you for being with us. You know, we very rarely hear about assault and crimes on the handicapped. Why? Because very often, they can`t speak out for themselves. It`s incredible this was caught on cell phone video. This is state`s exhibit number one, people.

Now, it`s my understanding, Patrick Solis, his bond was reduced and he`s out free. Now, Michael Rama -- did the cell phone belong to him at the time the photos were taken?

CARCAMO: Police believe that it did belong to him, yes.

GRACE: OK. So he was there in this room when this went down?

CARCAMO: Well, that`s undetermined. I think that`s still being investigated, and that`s why he`s a person that they want to speak with and that`s why he`s not being called a suspect right now. He`s a person that they want to question, basically.

GRACE: Out to Mike Brooks. Mike, how can we attack this case?

MIKE BROOKS, FORMER D.C. POLICE, SERVED ON FBI TERRORISM TASK FORCE: I tell you what, Nancy, this makes me sick. You talk about -- like -- oh, I won`t get into that. But what they can do is, they got to find out exactly what this Rama character`s -- what his role is in this. You know, the other guy -- you know, I hope they lock him up because they`re going to have a good time in jail. Even criminals, Nancy, they don`t like people that abuse children, the elderly or developmentally handicapped people like this. I hope he gets in jail, and I hope he gets his slaps once he gets in there.

But right now, they got to find out exactly what this guy`s role is, you know, whether or not he did shoot this video, was he in the room at the time, did he give his phone to someone else, was there someone else who was shooting this video? And also, how many other cases of abuse are they involved with, with other clients of this facility?

GRACE: Well, one thing, I want to point out that the moment that this cell phone was purchased by a third party, they brought it to the facility. The moment the facility saw this, they didn`t try to hide it. They didn`t stick their head in the sand and their butt in the air like an ostrich. They did something about it. They went to police and reported it -- and reported this.

I want to go out to Deborah Varos, the program director there at Jossen Vocational Academy. Ma`am, thank you for being with us. I guess you were completely stunned when you saw this.

DEBORAH VAROS, PROGRAM DIR., JOSSEN VOCATIONAL ACADEMY: As you see, the video is very, very disturbing. I -- you`re right, I was shocked. I was deeply saddened for the victims and very angry, but also very, very grateful for the individual who did come forward with the videotapes.

GRACE: Tell me something. It`s my understanding that these perpetrators -- and I say perpetrators because somebody is standing by, holding a cell phone, laughing and watching this beating go down. And in my mind, they are just as guilty as the attacker. Right there, you stand by, you don`t do anything, you`re part of it.

My question is, it`s my understanding that this bathroom was far off - - far away from everyone, so others couldn`t hear or see this beating go down. Is that correct?

VAROS: Yes. And it was behind closed doors.

GRACE: Now, is it correct that the rule at your facility is when you take a patient to the bathroom, two people have to go in there, and that rule was created so there would be a minimization of any type of abuse?

VAROS: Yes. That`s correct.

GRACE: You know, Dr. Deltito -- with me, Dr. Joseph Deltito, professor of psychiatry. Dr. Deltito, it`s mind-boggling. You know, this facility can make all the rules it wants to, to minimize attacks, such as two people have to go in when you take a patient to the bathroom, so there`s no sex abuse. And (INAUDIBLE) if they don`t gang up on the patient!

DR. JOSEPH DELTITO, PROF. OF PSYCHIATRY, NEW YORK MEDICAL COLLEGE: Yes, unfortunately, it`s not mind-boggling to me or other mental health professionals because we know there are a lot of sadistic people out there, and we know that there`s a certain percentage of sadistic people who are attracted to the type of professions where they`re caregivers of some sort -- nursing homes, in jails, and whatever. I`m not saying most people are, but there`s a higher than normal population of people who are into control, controlling other people, hurting other people. And I can say, if this person did this on this time, it`s next to nil chance that he hasn`t done something like this before to other people.

GRACE: Well, Dr. Deltito, another issue, as we`re seeing this video, there were two videos on the cell phone. Some idiot -- and that`s not certainly a technical legal term -- actually videoed two rounds of beating and taunting a mentally handicapped patient, one with the mind of, I believe, a 2-year-old, one with the mind of a toddler. It`s sick!

DELTITO: Yes, someone is delighting in this. Someone is delighting in the fact -- who knows, they may have shown this to friends at a party to show how cool they were for what they do at work, or something like that. I think as they investigate this, they`re going to find out that more people knew about this than you would think, and that they lived in a culture where they thought they could probably video this and show this and they didn`t think this would be evidence against them, which it luckily has become.

GRACE: Jean?

CASAREZ: There`s something else real important here. Police are saying that you can hear claps on the video.

GRACE: Oh, my God.

CASAREZ: OK, if I`m taking a picture with...

GRACE: You can`t clap!

CASAREZ: ... a cell phone, you can`t clap. That`s right.

GRACE: That means there was somebody else in there.

CASAREZ: I think there`s...

GRACE: Another spectator!

CASAREZ: ... a big possibility, yes.

GRACE: To Deborah Varos, the program director there at Jossen Vocational Academy, who immediately took this footage to the police -- have you thought of that? There`s somebody clapping and jeering in the background. The cell phone operator couldn`t be clapping. Do you think, Deborah, that there is a third person?

VAROS: It`s possible. But our policy was that two individuals, two staff members had to accompany anybody in the restroom. Currently, we`ve changed our policy since then, and now a supervisor has to be present any time they`re behind closed doors during toileting. I think -- my thought is that they were clapping in order to cover up the sound of the slaps.

GRACE: But who`s clapping? It`s not the person beating the patient. It`s not the person holding the cell phone. What I`m saying is, apparently, this had turned into some kind of a spectator sport, far off in the hidden corridors of the caregiving facility. It`s awful!

I want to go out to a special guest joining me tonight. His name is Lawrence Carter Long. And I don`t know if you can recognize him, but the moment I saw him, I knew him immediately. He was the poster child for United Way for cerebral palsy. And he is the voice tonight -- that`s the young man that I first became familiar with. Now he is a grown man, and he`s speaking out for the disabled.

Lawrence, thank you again for being with us. It`s painful for me -- and I`ve seen a lot of felony cases. A lot. I`ve seen autopsies. I`ve seen crime scene photos. I`ve been in the morgue. But looking at this and seeing it happen and seeing the mentally handicapped patients being treated that way is very, very hurtful and painful to even watch.

LAWRENCE CARTER LONG, FMR. UNITED WAY POSTER CHILD, HAS CEREBRAL PALSY: Well, the thing that I want to bring up, Nancy -- and thank you for having us on again. It`s good to have the disability advocates have a chance to give our say on one of these programs -- is that what you`re uncovering here is a code of silence among individuals who work in these institutions. They often don`t report on one another because they don`t want to be getting in trouble the next time. So you`ve uncovered an epidemic that is probably far more widespread than anybody imagines.

We live in a society where a young developmentally disabled woman can be raped by a football team in New Jersey, and the community can rally around the football team, rather than the child. We live in a society where somebody can get more time for stealing a car radio than they can for abusing a developmentally disabled person.

So what we really need to get to is, how are we going to address the client-centered needs, the consumer-centered needs, rather than the needs of the facility, how it`s going to be easier for the facility, how it`s going to be easier for the workers, to getting to address the needs of the people that are in those places and to see abuses like this don`t happen?

GRACE: You know, I can hardly stand to look at the video. But I want you to see how these mentally handicapped people have been treated. And I also want to point out again that this vocational academy took this video immediately to the police. They didn`t try to hide. They didn`t try to cover up, like so many people would have.

Out to the lines. Anna in Idaho. Hi, Anna.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi. How are you, Nancy?

GRACE: Well, I`m good.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well...

GRACE: You know, not really. I`m not good. Looking at this is very distressing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, it is, and it just made me want to weep. But the gentleman that was on coined it correctly. This is an atrocity that`s going on all over this country. It`s -- and it`s not -- it`s the elderly. I mean, it`s the dehumanization of them in these homes. It`s OK for them to have sores. We see somebody abusing an animal, they get nailed, and yet it`s OK to do this to people that cannot speak for themselves.

GRACE: Out to Cherie Hill. She is a detective with the Anaheim Police Department. Miss Hill, thank you for being with us -- Detective Hill. What is the police department doing to try to apprehend these two? In my mind, you`re looking at three suspects -- the person that did the beating, that took the video, and stood by and clapped.

DET. CHERIE HILL, ANAHEIM POLICE DEPARTMENT: Currently, as you heard, that Patrick Solis was arraigned and he did bail out this past Monday on the $25,000 bail. Currently, we`ve -- through the help of the media, we have received word from a subject identifying himself as Michael Rama, who is currently willing to speak to us as a witness in this case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Detective Hill is looking for the phone`s former owner, Michael Rama, who is also a caretaker. She says he`s involved. Patrick Solis is free on bail. And something else that`s extremely troubling. Police say it`s quite possible that Solis and Rama have new jobs working as caretakers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Detective Hill is looking for the phone`s former owner, Michael Rama, who is also a caretaker. She says he`s involved. Patrick Solis is free on bail. And something else that`s extremely troubling. Police say it`s quite possible that Solis and Rama have new jobs working as caretakers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: I can`t believe that they could actually be in another nursing home or caregiving facility after that video, caught on a phone video beating a mentally handicapped patient, not one but two of them with the mind of toddlers.

But this isn`t the first case of abuse caught on video. Here`s another caregiver. There you go. Baby is the football! And that`s not all. Keep watching. Keep watching. Believe it or not, even with video like this, sometimes these cases are not prosecuted.

Let`s go out to the lawyers. Lauren Lake, first to you. What do you make -- oh, we`ve got Michael Cardoza. Glad you made it, Michael. To you, Lauren Lake. What`s your defense?

LAUREN LAKE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Look, Nancy, you know I love to go a few rounds with me, but today you`re not going to get much out of me by way of a defense. My father spent his life working with developmentally disabled children, and I am disgusted by that tape.

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: Well, I`m not hiring you then. I agree with you, but you`re not getting my tip.

LAKE: Let me say something -- trust me, I don`t...

GRACE: Guess I`ll have to hire Cardoza.

(CROSSTALK)

LAKE: Trust me, I don`t even want that money. But let me tell you this. There`s nothing these people are going be able to say. Short of having that videotape, they may have a shot at a defense. But because that is on tape and you see the positioning of that developmentally disabled person and you also the positioning of the person that`s abusing him, that`s problematic all the way around. It`s going to be an uphill battle for the defense.

GRACE: Man, you`re not no kidding. The only way around it, Michael, that I can see -- I don`t want to give you any ideas, not that you need any -- is to somehow get the video thrown out. Then you don`t have a case because these witnesses cannot testify.

MICHAEL CARDOZA, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: You`re right. I mean, if you could get the video thrown out, what evidence do they then have? Probably nothing.

But let`s keep in mind -- I mean, to hear that, you know, Oh, I wouldn`t take the case. -- I can understand the emotion of that and why some defense attorneys would say that. But remember the role of a defense attorney. It`s not necessarily to walk people out of the courtroom. We`re there to ensure that the prosecution does it under the law, does it properly, that the people that are accused are given, you know, a fair trial here. So that`s our job as a lawyer, make sure everything`s done right. Classic example is Nifong in the Duke case, who was overzealous.

GRACE: I don`t know how you worked that into this case, but I appreciate -- "A" for effort. "A" for effort, Cardoza.

CARDOZA: Thanks.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Solis has been criminally charged with abusing that client, as well as another. Laughter can be heard coming from the employees as the second disabled victim is slapped on another cell phone video.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: What idiot, A, would do this, and put it on a cell phone? And these two guys, the suspects, are very likely working in the health care industry still, even after this. The victims, the minds of toddlers.

Out to Lisa in Texas. Hi, Lisa.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. I`m the mother of a special needs little boy that cannot speak at all, and this is exactly why I don`t let him out of my sight. My question is -- I`d like to know the timeline between how long these poor handicapped patients were subjected to these so-called caregivers, between the time that this actually happened and the time the video surfaced.

GRACE: Well, Lisa, you`re not going to like the answer. Jean Casarez?

CASAREZ: You know, Lisa, it`s interesting. March and April of last year they believe the video was taken. That`s a month apart from each other. Well, then that cell phone was sold. So Mr. Rama, who they are looking for now, he sold his cell phone, but he didn`t delete the video. So the new owner of the cell phone, who is also an employee at the vocational center, saw the two video clips in September of 2006, gave it to authorities, who then gave it to the police.

GRACE: Back to you, Detective Hill. Why won`t Michael Rama come forward and speak to you?

HILL: Again, we -- what I want to say is, I did attempt to locate him. Unfortunately, he had family members that would not tell me where he was until I had the assistance of the media.

GRACE: Well, you know what? We`re going to help. Let`s show that photo again, Liz. We want Michael Rama to speak to police.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[Debi]

1. This is exactly why I fear my son ever moving out of our home

He'll need a constant caregiver and I'm so afraid that he'll be abused or taken advantage. :scared:

[Manifestor_of_Light]

2. This also happens in hospitals - to unconscious people

This happens in hospitals. Hospital workers will hit unconscious people who are sedated pre- or post-surgery.

Once a lawyer friend showed me pictures of a woman who had been hit in the face and head while in the hospital for surgery. She had an appendicitis attack and the hospital did not treat her, they dumped her at another hospital, who removed her appendix, and he was suing the first hospital.

My father also had several surgeries in his old age, in the 1980s and 1990s -- heart bypass, prostate cancer, got his gall bladder yanked -- and he told me that he had a couple of bruises that he had no idea where they came from. That made me absolutely livid with anger.

[NMMNG]

3. Unfortunately this happens despite all of the monitoring, training and safeguards.

Sadly it happens in homes as well. :-(