Teens Accused of Beating Disabled Woman

Two teenagers hid overnight in a house and spent more than six hours torturing a disabled woman after her mother left in the morning, authorities said.

Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones said the teenage boy and girl tied up the 18-year-old woman, clubbed her, kicked her, shaved her head and soaked her with water before making her walk barefoot outside in the snow.

They also ignored pleas from the woman, who had undergone brain surgery, not to hit her in the head, investigators said.

"This is one of the worst crimes I've ever seen," Jones said Monday. "They are sick animals, apparently just doing this for kicks and no other reason."

Cheyenne Blanton, 17, and Joseph Nagle, 16, both of Hamilton, were arraigned Monday on juvenile delinquency charges that include aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery, kidnapping, felonious assault and vandalism, according to juvenile court officials.

They were ordered held in the county's juvenile detention center pending a court appearance later this week. Neither entered a plea, and both requested court-appointed attorneys. Those attorneys had not been named Monday.

The teens are accused of physically abusing Ashley Clark, 18, for more than six hours Friday at her home in Hanover Township, about 35 miles northwest of Cincinnati.

Both Jones and the woman's mother, Sheila Clark, want the teenagers tried as adults, and Jones said the two could get 75 years to life in prison if tried and convicted as adults.

"I want full justice for my daughter," Clark said Monday. "Those two never need to walk the streets again."

Clark would not comment on details of the case or provide specifics on her daughter's disabilities or injuries, other than to say that her daughter was doing as well as possible.

"I can't understand how anyone could do this to anyone, but especially to someone with such a beautiful, loving heart," Sheila Clark said.

Messages seeking comment on whether adult charges would be pursued were left at the prosecutor's office Monday. There was no answer at telephone listing for a Joseph Nagel in Hamilton. There was no listing for Cheyenne Blanton.

Jones said the teenagers hid overnight in the basement of the Clark home, intending to steal the car and leave town before an upcoming juvenile court appearance date for one of the suspects.

They apparently missed their chance to get the car when Sheila Clark left the house in it Friday morning, and they went into the kitchen to get something to eat before going upstairs and waking her daughter, Jones said. The pair then spent the next six to eight hours torturing Ashley Clark, he said.

The mother realized something had happened when she came home, saw the house ransacked and called 911. A neighbor also called the sheriff's department to report two juveniles in the neighbor's yard.

Detectives apprehended the teenagers a few minutes later in nearby woods after following their footprints in the snow, Jones said

 

Source: The Associated Press

CACI Program Helps Disabled Veterans Start New Careers

Suffering from his third back injury, Army Cpl. Mayo Van Dyck was walking through Walter Reed Army Medical Center last year feeling he couldn't give the service his all anymore. But he didn't want to stop supporting the government.

So the 10-year serviceman, a satellite communications specialist who had served in Kosovo, was happy to hear an announcement that Arlington government contractor CACI International had a new program targeting service-disabled veterans. He attended a CACI briefing at Walter Reed and soon after joined the company. He is now a quality assurance manager on a classified project.

"People think we don't have a skill set that translates well," said Van Dyck, 37, who suffers bouts of numbness and pain in his back, arms and legs. "My primary job was to work as a communications soldier. My secondary job was to carry a gun."

Disabled veterans in recent years have faced increasing barriers to employment. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 14.8 percent of service-disabled veterans discharged from 2002 to 2005 are unemployed, compared with 9.8 percent of veterans without a disability. That's far above the same categories from the 1990s.

The CACI program, "Deployed Talent, Creating Careers," looks for service-disabled veterans at job fairs, on message boards and in military hospitals. Less than a year since starting the effort, it has hired 18 service-disabled veterans -- some with a lost limb, others with hearing loss, almost all working directly with clients.

The program is the brain child of Paul Cofoni, who took over as CACI's chief executive last summer. He became interested in the issues of the disabled when he was head of the federal unit at Computer Sciences Corp. There, he urged the human resources department to hire 30 disabled people in one year -- a small number, he thought, since CSC had 90,000 employees. "They looked at me startled," he said, and it took a year and a half.

"I ended up directing the program," Cofoni said. "There's a fear [by the recruiters] that they're taking a risk that if it doesn't work out it could be hard to release them."

Upon becoming CACI's chief, Cofoni immediately instituted a program to hire disabled vets. He said he was mindful of the lack of resources many Vietnam veterans suffered when they returned from the war.

"If we all do our bit here, we won't have another generation of displaced veterans out there in the society," Cofoni said.

-- Zachary A. Goldfarb

Advocate of disabled sees ways city can improve access

Emma Aguirre lives in the 5100 block of Blue Ridge Drive in Northeast El Paso. She has worked with city officials to improve access to sidewalks and better street lights. Any glitch in the sidewalk could send wheelchair users out into the street. (Rudy Gutierrez / El Paso Times)

Like many El Pasoans active in the community, Northeast resident Emma Aguirre hits the streets to talk to her neighbors about their concerns, and has gone as far as collecting signatures from those wanting more street lights, better sidewalks and police patrols.

But unlike some El Pasoans, Aguirre, who is paralyzed on the left side of her body, uses a motorized wheelchair, and has counted about 15 other residents who are also disabled and require a wheelchair to get around.

"Until you're in a wheelchair, you can't understand the needs of our community," said Aguirre, who has used a wheelchair for about six years. "We have a lot of needs in this area."

Aguirre has reached out to city officials like West-Central city Rep. Susie Byrd and Northeast city Rep. Melina Castro, and representatives from the city's Streets Department, to get curb cuts, or sidewalk ramps, installed along Blue Ridge Drive, where Aguirre has lived for about 30 years. Although the curb cuts have made it easier for Aguirre to travel through her neighborhood, she said a lot more still needs to be done before she can feel safe navigating her motorized wheelchair through the streets.

"I travel 12 blocks to pick up my medicines from Walgreens (near Diana Drive and Dyer Street), and sometimes I have to use driveways to go from one sidewalk to another, or sometimes the cars are blocking the sidewalk and I have to go into the street," Aguirre said.

After complaining about the lack of curb cuts to city officials, Aguirre took Byrd and a streets engineer on a tour through the neighborhood.

"When you begin to look at it, you realize how many barriers and hurdles there are," Byrd said. "The sidewalks in this neighborhood are really narrow. Even with one glitch you have to move onto the grass, which is hard to do, or out into the street."

Sometimes Aguirre has to travel after sundown by herself since her husband isn't able to drive after dark. Because of this, Aguirre has noticed a lack of street lighting in the area, which is dangerous, especially when she has to maneuver onto Diana Drive, a busy thoroughfare.

"I risk getting hit by cars," Aguirre said. "It's very dark along that street."

Castro said she has spoken to Aguirre about her concerns involving portions of Castro's district, including an entrance to the Northpark Mall parking lot that is in bad condition. Castro said that sidewalk accessibility and fixing the city-owned portion of the mall entrance will be addressed by the end of the year.

Some disabled residents feel that the city isn't doing enough to comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act, which was passed July 26, 1990.

"The city is supposed to have already complied with it, but they've been very behind in making the city accessible," said Luis Enrique Chew, executive director for the Volar Center for Independent Living, which advocates for the rights of people with disabilities.

Chew, who has used a wheelchair for 27 years, said the city has an ADA coordinator who has to compete with other community organizations for Community Development Block Grant funds, and that, sometimes, people with disabilities have to wait until funding is available before accessibility improvements can be made.

"I believe that the city should have a line item in the budget to comply with the ADA, because right now we're competing with funding for other purposes," Chew said.

However, accessibility around the city has improved over the past two decades, said Central resident Michael Rodriguez, 52, who has used a wheelchair for 27 years.

"In my area, they (the city) fixed it up real nice with bike lanes and curb cuts, so it's easier for me," said Rodriguez, who is active at Volar. "We're getting there. Compared to 25 years ago, things are a lot better now."

Adriana M. Chávez may be reached at achavez@elpasotimes.com; 546-6117.

More information

For information on the Volar Center for Independent Living, located at 1220 Golden Key Circle, visit www.volarcil. org or call 591-0800.