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Linda Harris and Omega Leach

Attorneys Investigate Youth Center Deaths

Families Say Other Children Injured At Facility

POSTED: 5:20 pm CDT July 18, 2007
UPDATED: 7:38 pm CDT July 18, 2007

A teen who died last month at a youth treatment center in Montgomery County had been injured at the facility a week before his death.

Video: Attorneys Investigate Deaths At Youth Center

This is just one of the details uncovered by Philadelphia lawyers and a private investigator who are in Clarksville working for the family of 17-year-old Omega Leach.

The teen died after being restrained by two staff members at Chad, a private mental health facility for children over age 7, in early June.

One report obtained by attorney Edith Pearce shows that a week before Leach's death, he had to be taken to the hospital. Chad said the teen walked into a door.

"It's certainly something that deserves investigation in my opinion," said Pearce.

Leach was the second teen who died in an 18-month period after being disciplined by the staff.

Several families have come forward, telling Channel 4 that their children were unnecessarily pinned down by staff members for punishment.

Sharon Pruett, a mother from Waverly, Tenn., met with the Pennsylvania lawyers to tell them what happened to her son John in 2004.

She gave them pictures that show bruises she said her child received at the hands of a Chad employee.

"He was strangled, thrown up against the wall, kneed in the groin," said Pruett.

She filed criminal charges against the staff member, but the case has now been expunged and erased from the public record.

"The reason why I'm here today, I feel like if we could have gotten this place shut down in 2004, these two kids would still be alive today," said Pruett.

The two staff members who had their hands on Leach when he died have still yet to be charged.

The autopsy report on Leach has yet to be released.


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