Youth center already under investigation faces new complaint

Associated Press

August 28, 2007

A 13-year-old boy who was in the care of the Chad Youth Enhancement Center in Montgomery County was taken to the hospital on Monday as a victim of sexual assault.

The facility for troubled youth already is under investigation after 17-year-old Omega Leach, of Philadelphia, died there in June when Chad staff physically restrained him, pushing him face-down to the floor.

Investigators are trying to find out whether Leach was restrained improperly, preventing him from breathing.

It was the second death there in as many years. The Tennessee Department of Children's Services stopped sending children to Chad after 14-year-old Linda Regina Harris collapsed and died of heart failure after a confrontation with staff in September 2005.

The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office is investigating the sexual assault complaint, but spokesman Ted Denny would not provide specific information about it.

Staff at Chad referred calls to a corporate office in Nashville where officials could not immediately be reached.

A Pennsylvania judge earlier this month began removing children from the facility.

At the time of Leach's death, 44 of the center's 85 residents were from Philadelphia, which has paid Chad $6 million in the last three years.

Chad is a privately owned 90-bed residential facility that specializes in rehabilitating mentally disturbed youth between the ages of 8 and 18. Located about 40 miles west of Nashville, it is owned by Universal Health Services Inc., a for-profit corporation based in King of Prussia, Penn.