LITTLE ROCK — The state Claims Commission has found the Department of Health Services’ Youth Services Division liable in the death of Maurice “Beau” Clark, 67, who was shot and killed by a teenager released two months before from the agency’s custody.
The finding was made during a commission hearing Wednesday, but an additional hearing will be held Dec. 13 to determine the damages that will be awarded to Clark’s estate, commission Director Norman Hodges said Thursday.
Clark was killed in a home invasion June 30, 2009. Prosecutors said Antonio Terry, then 16, was one of the four Little Rock teens who participated in the robbery. Terry was the gunman, his co-defendants said, shooting Clark twice, including once in the head.
Terry had been sent to a juvenile-detention center for burglary and theft. But Youth Services officials released him after three months, despite the objections of several staff members.
In a brief to the commission, Carmen Mosley-Sims, the attorney representing Youth Services, said the agency had acted appropriately and provided Terry with “extensive wraparound services” after his release to help him re-enter society.
The agency stated in commission filings that it should not be held liable simply because Terry was receiving treatment at the time of the attack.
“The fact that [Youth Services] provided residential treatment to the man who wielded the weapon two months previously and released him to continue his treatment in the community does not make [the agency] liable for Terry and his co-conspirators’ deliberate and willful criminal acts,” the filing states.
But in another filing, the agency “admitted that information was available which, under informal operating procedures in place at the time, might have prevented [Terry’s] release had those procedures been followed.”
Terry pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and aggravated robbery in the case and was sentenced to 65 years in prison. His co-defendants, Thomas Caffery, Craig Woods and Mashaun Kendrick, all pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and aggravated robbery and were each sentenced to prison terms.
Youth Services Division Director Ron Angel fired Jacobia Twiggs in July 2009 for releasing 11 boys, including Terry, from the juvenile-detention center, despite objections of employees.
Angel also offered to resign after Terry’s arrest, but Department of Human Services Director John Selig did not accept his offer.
Amy Webb, a spokesman for the Human Services Department, which oversees the Youth Services Division, said she would not comment on the claim until the commission hearing in December.
But Webb said changes have been made at Youth Services since Terry’s release.
The agency now includes an area to note if there is a disagreement about a person’s release in the its database and there is now an additional “layer of review,” which brings all cases to the agency director before a person is released.
“We have fortified the process by which youths are released back to their home communities,” Webb said.
In the initial filing sent to the Claims Commission, Little Rock attorney David Williams requested an award of $1 million to Clark’s estate if the agency was found liable.
“That’s exactly what we were there for,” Williams said.
Williams said he was limited to asking for $1 million, but would have requested more, if it was allowed by the commission.
Hodges said the commission hears similar seven-figure claims from time to time.
“That’s not particularly unusual at all, especially when there’s a death involved,” Hodges said.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 11/16/2012