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A woman who has accused two caregivers of mistreating her autistic son was asked today to explain video showing her younger son putting his disabled brother into a choke-hold.
Mrs. Kim Oakley stated, “He’s definitely in the process of trying to control his brother,” when a defense attorney played the video clip for a jury today, April 9, 2013.
In the video, a teenager identified as Mike Oakley got behind his disabled brother Jamey, 23, and put his forearm over Jamey’s neck while he pulled one of Jamey’s arms behind his back, and then both men advanced outside the range of the camera.
Mrs. Oakley testified that her younger son Mike was one of seven paid caregivers for her severely autistic son Jamey.
A different caregiver, 62-year-old Michael Dale Garritson, is on trial this week, charged with seven felonies. He is accused of abusing the 23-year-old autistic man in his care last summer, while the mother was gone for a month. Garritson has been a Registered Nurse for 30 years, and has fourteen children of his own.
Mrs. Oakley said her younger son Mike Oakley has no formal training as a nurse or caregiver.
Kim Oakley was in the witness box for another long day today, the second day of trial. Yesterday she told the jury that she could “clearly” see Garritson “hair-pulling” and “slam-to-the-ground” and “shove” her son Jamey; she described brief video clips as they were shown to the jury. But some observers in the courtroom wondered aloud as to what could actually be seen in the grainy clips.
And the way Garritson touched his patient, stopping the severely autistic man from striking himself, appeared much gentler and milder than the way brother Mike took hold of Jamey.
Mrs. Oakley testified that her husband installed a new video camera in Jamey’s room late in July 2012, shortly before she left for Europe. On August 29, a week after her return, Mrs. Oakley said she started reviewing the video, and that is when she claimed to see abuse of her son by Garritson and another paid caregiver named Matthew McDuffie.
Public defender Michael Washington suggests that a computer technician was able to recover certain videos on Mrs. Oakley’s computer that had been in a location titled “Recycle.” The defender seems to imply that Mrs. Oakley has removed or misplaced video and “nursing notes” that illustrate her younger son’s “caregiving” for his brother.
Trial will resume tomorrow morning, April 10, 2013, before the Honorable Judge Blaine K. Bowman.
http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/apr/09/43512/
http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/apr/09/43514/
A woman who has accused two caregivers of mistreating her autistic son was asked today to explain video showing her younger son putting his disabled brother into a choke-hold.
Mrs. Kim Oakley stated, “He’s definitely in the process of trying to control his brother,” when a defense attorney played the video clip for a jury today, April 9, 2013.
In the video, a teenager identified as Mike Oakley got behind his disabled brother Jamey, 23, and put his forearm over Jamey’s neck while he pulled one of Jamey’s arms behind his back, and then both men advanced outside the range of the camera.
Mrs. Oakley testified that her younger son Mike was one of seven paid caregivers for her severely autistic son Jamey.
A different caregiver, 62-year-old Michael Dale Garritson, is on trial this week, charged with seven felonies. He is accused of abusing the 23-year-old autistic man in his care last summer, while the mother was gone for a month. Garritson has been a Registered Nurse for 30 years, and has fourteen children of his own.
Mrs. Oakley said her younger son Mike Oakley has no formal training as a nurse or caregiver.
Kim Oakley was in the witness box for another long day today, the second day of trial. Yesterday she told the jury that she could “clearly” see Garritson “hair-pulling” and “slam-to-the-ground” and “shove” her son Jamey; she described brief video clips as they were shown to the jury. But some observers in the courtroom wondered aloud as to what could actually be seen in the grainy clips.
And the way Garritson touched his patient, stopping the severely autistic man from striking himself, appeared much gentler and milder than the way brother Mike took hold of Jamey.
Mrs. Oakley testified that her husband installed a new video camera in Jamey’s room late in July 2012, shortly before she left for Europe. On August 29, a week after her return, Mrs. Oakley said she started reviewing the video, and that is when she claimed to see abuse of her son by Garritson and another paid caregiver named Matthew McDuffie.
Public defender Michael Washington suggests that a computer technician was able to recover certain videos on Mrs. Oakley’s computer that had been in a location titled “Recycle.” The defender seems to imply that Mrs. Oakley has removed or misplaced video and “nursing notes” that illustrate her younger son’s “caregiving” for his brother.
Trial will resume tomorrow morning, April 10, 2013, before the Honorable Judge Blaine K. Bowman.
http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/apr/09/43512/
http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/apr/09/43514/