A second video shot by a 12-year-old at a facility run by Northeast Parent & Child Society includes staffers using obscenities a dozen times in the space of less than 80 seconds to upbraid the boy — one of them warning, “I’m going to kill a kid, and you might be the one I kill.”
The video, first shown last year by WNYT Ch. 13 and provided to the Times Union on Thursday, was described in a lawsuit filed last month in Albany’s Northern District federal court that alleges the boy, identified in the suit as “R.W.,” suffered serious injury last year after workers at Northeast Parent & Child Society choked him with the power cord of his PlayStation device.
An image of “R.W.”
The boy used the same device to record the staffers.
The lawsuit names Northeast as well as the affiliated Northern Rivers Family Services Inc. and Parsons Child and Family Center as defendants. One Northeast employee, Tajeer Uln, is identified in the court papers, while 20 individuals are unnamed. Uln could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
A video posted on YouTube earlier this week by the Disability Rights Project shows R.W., again using his game console, displaying a bruised eye — an injury he says he received from Uln.
Among the unnamed “John and Jane Doe” defendants are employees of the state Justice Center, the agency that investigates allegations of abuse committed against the disabled.
The second clip, which runs a minute and 17 seconds, begins with R.W. saying, “I don’t care.”
“You don’t got any clothes or ___ing underwear in there?,” says an unseen adult male. “You look? Did you look, you ___ing liar?”
Wide-eyed, the boy peers down into the device’s camera and says, “Mean.”
“I’m going to kill a kid, and you might be the one I kill,” a different adult male voice says later in the video, after the boy is upbraided for not being in his room. “I’m serious, I’m not playing. You want me to ___ing hurt you, boy? … I’m trying to be nice to you, dude. I always start off nice, but you’re bringing the worst out in me.”
At the end of the video, the boy tips the camera up again.
“Mom, I’m scared,” he says.
“The behaviors seen in this video are certainly disturbing and do not reflect the culture we practice and value within our organization,” said Darlene Raynsford, a spokeswoman for Northern Rivers Family Services.
“This matter occurred over a year ago, and has been thoroughly investigated by the Justice Center with our full cooperation,” she continued. “We intend to continue working with the Justice Center on recommendations or suggestions they make.”
Warning: The video below contains extensive profanity and disturbing content:
The Capitol Confidential team: