Law blocks family's quest for justice:A state school where a retarded man was beaten severely has le

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

April 19, 2007, 12:28AM
Law blocks family's quest for justice
A state school where a retarded man was beaten severely has legal immunity


By JANET ELLIOTT
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

AUSTIN — All that Farhat Chishty wants is for officials with the Denton State School to be held accountable for the severe beating her mentally retarded son suffered there more than four years ago at the hands of a drug-addled caregiver.
Hasib Chishty, 34, went from being able to walk and eat the cheeseburgers he loved to being confined to a wheelchair and fed through a tube.
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But the family faces a huge barrier to their quest for civil justice — the state's legal immunity to personal injury lawsuits. Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, is trying to pass a resolution that would grant Farhat Chishty permission to sue the state school and Department of Aging and Disability Services.
(snip)

The state's investigation into the September 2002 beating that left Hasib Chisty hospitalized for six months with a ruptured intestine and septic poisoning concluded the injury was of unknown origin. Marianne Reat, an attorney with DADS, told the committee Wednesday that the investigation by the Department of Family and Protective Services was not able to determine any abuse or neglect occurred.
(snip)

In May 2005, a former care worker named Kevin Dewitt Miller gave a videotaped statement that he had been under the influence of cocaine, marijuana and powerful prescription drugs when he kicked and punched Chisty more than a dozen times.



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