Psychiatric Center for Teenagers Is Mired in Patient Accusations of Rape

From the August 7th NY Times

A widely respected residential psychiatric treatment center for teenagers in Manhattan acknowledged yesterday that it was cooperating with law-enforcement authorities who have charged three former employees with sexually assaulting girls at the center in recent years.

The suspects, all child-care workers for the August Aichhorn Center for Adolescent Residential Care at 23 West 106th Street, were fired in May and early June after being indicted on multiple counts of rape, sexual abuse and sexual misconduct involving at least four girls younger than 17. The allegations were reported yesterday by The New York Post.

“The August Aichhorn Center is deeply concerned by the allegations of illegal conduct made by current and former residents against members of our staff,” Dr. Michael A. Pawel, a psychiatrist who is the center’s executive director, wrote in a statement posted on the center’s Web site.

The statement added: “Aichhorn has been fully cooperative with the New York County district attorney’s office in its investigation and we will continue to cooperate with all relevant investigations so that it can be determined whether these allegations are true or false.”

Court records listed the suspects as Milton Venable, 46, Phree Noel, 32, and Edward R. Tapia, 26, all Manhattan residents who had worked for years at the treatment center and have families and roots in the community. All pleaded not guilty at their arraignments in Manhattan Criminal Court and at the request of their lawyers were released without bail for court appearances later this month and in September.

According to the court records, most of the sexual assaults occurred during the last two years, although one occurred in 2002. Mr. Venable was charged with two counts of rape and two of sexual misconduct, Mr. Noel was charged with numerous counts of rape, and Mr. Tapia was charged with multiple counts of rape, criminal sexual acts, sexual abuse and other misconduct.

Dr. Pawel’s statement did not name the accused men or detail any of the allegations, but it noted that the center’s patients were among “the most severely troubled teenagers in the New York area,” and that the center had strict rules for handling allegations of misconduct.

“The center follows stringent, documented procedures for the protection of both residents and our staff, as a healthy and safe environment is necessary for the successful treatment and rehabilitation of the adolescents in our care,” Dr. Pawel wrote. “All allegations of mistreatment which are brought to our attention are taken seriously, internally investigated and always reported to the proper authorities for an outside, independent review. We have followed these procedures in this matter.”

Efforts to reach the accused men and their lawyers were unsuccessful yesterday, although Mr. Venable’s father, Frank, said in a brief telephone interview that the charges against his son were false. Dr. Pawel did not respond to calls, and Carmen Torres, an administrative aide, referred a reporter to his Web site statement.

The Aichhorn center, a co-educational residential facility for 32 patients who range from 12 to 16 years old when they are admitted for treatment, takes in some of the city’s most troubled teenagers: boys and girls with records for assault, robbery, arson and other criminal activity, who have been shuttled among foster homes, state hospitals, juvenile detention facilities and mental health centers. Treatments take an average of 30 months.

“We get the youngsters nobody else can handle,” Dr. Pawel, who founded the center in 1991, told New York magazine in 1999. The magazine described the center as “part hospital, part jail,” and said the living quarters had the feel of a college dormitory, with rooms decorated with movie posters and the covers of hip-hop magazines.

The center, in a six-story brownstone, has four living units — three with eight single rooms and one with four double rooms — and has its own school, a clinic and recreational facilities. The full-time staff of 86 includes therapists, teachers and 46 child-care workers, all of them screened and trained. Rules of the center prohibit staff members from being alone with a patient.

The work of the center, which receives more than $5 million in public funding, has drawn wide praise from state and city mental health officials and others in the juvenile-justice field. In 2001, Gov. George E. Pataki hailed the center in a letter to Dr. Pawel. “Through the committed work of community-based organizations like yours, we will continue to advance the well-being of young adults in your community and the entire state.”